The Steps of Humility and Pride IV: 13 41
The Steps of Humility and Pride IV: 13
with the delicacy of supreme tenderness. Could we have even imagined the infinite mercy if we had not seen it springing from one who shared our misery? In the impassibility of eternity
We had an infinite compassion for us but we could never have fully realized it except for the Passion we saw him suffering.
All the same if he had not first that mercy, which knows nothing of misery, he would not have come by that to which misery gives birth. If he had not that, he would not have attracted us to himself; and if he had not attracted us he would not have extracted us from the morass of misery and the slough of sin.98 He did not lose anything of his eternal mercy but he added a new note to it; he did not change it but he multiplied it; as the Scripture says: "Men and beasts you will save O Lord: how you have multiplied your mercy O God."99
IV. 13. But, to come back to our subject: if he submitted himself to human misery so that he might not simply know of it, but experience it as well, how much more ought you not make any change in your condition, but pay attention to what you are, because you are truly full of misery. This is the only way, if you are to learn to be merciful. If you have eyes for the shortcomings of your neighbor and not for your own, no feeling of mercy will arise in you but rather indignation. You will be more ready to judge than to help, to crush in the spirit of anger than to instruct in the spirit of gentleness. "You who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness," says the Apostle.100 His counsel, or better, his precept, is that you should treat an ailing brother with the spirit of gentleness with which you would like to be treated yourself in your weakness. He shows then how to find out the right way to apply this spirit of gentleness: "Considering yourself lest you also be tempted."101
14. It is worth noticing how closely the Disciple of Truth follows the order of his Master's thoughts. In the Beatitudes, just as the merciful, as I have said,1"2 come before the clean
101. J bid.
102. Above, no. 6, p. 34.
98. Ps 39:3.
99. Ps 35:7f.
100. Gal 6:1.
The Steps of Humility and Pride IV: 14 of heart, so the meek are spoken of before the merciful.103
When the Apostle tells the spiritually minded to instruct the earthly minded he adds: "In the spirit of meekness."104 The only ones who can instruct the brethren are those who are merciful, those who are meek or humble. In other words, one cannot really be merciful if he is not humble. Thus the Apostle clearly shows what I promised to prove to you, namely that we must look for truth first in ourselves, and afterwards in our neighbor. "Considering yourself," he says, that is, considering how easily you are tempted and how prone to sin, you will become meek and ready to help others in the "spirit of gentleness." If the words of the Disciple do not impress you enough, perhaps you will take warning from the stern words of the Master: "Hypocrite, first cast the beam from your own eye and then you will see better to cast the mote from you brother's."105 The heavy, thick beam in the eye is pride of heart. It is big but not strong, swollen, not solid. It blinds the eye of the mind and blots out the truth. While it is there you cannot see yourself as you really are, or even the ideal of what you could be, but what you would like to be, this you think you are or hope to be. For what else is pride but, as a saint has defined it, the love of one's own excellence.106 We may define humility as the opposite: contempt of one's own excellence. Neither love nor hate will give an impartial judgment. Truth will judge thus:
"As I hear so I judge,'"07 not: "as I hate," nor "as I love," nor "as I fear." Hate gave its judgment: "We have a Law and according to the Law he ought to die."108 Fear spoke: "If we let him alone, the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.'"09 And we have an example of judgment swayed
103. Mt 5:4-8.
104. Gal 6:1.
105. Mt 7:5.
106. St Augustine, Sermon 354:6; PL 36:1565; De Genesi ad litteram XI, xiv, 18; PL 34:436. Bernard gives the same definition in Mor 19 (PL 182:821), adding further distinctions. In Div 47 (OB 6-1:267; CF 46) he gives a similar definition, distinguishing pride m the heart from pride in speech, pride in actions and pride in clothing.
107. Jn 5:3a 109. Jn 11:48.
108. Jn 19:7.
The Steps of Humility and Pride IV: 15
by love when David said of his parricide son: "Spare the boy Absolom."110 I understand that it is the practice in both ecclesiastical and civil courts, in accord with the law, to forbid special friends of litigants to try their cases, lest love of their friends blind the judges or tempt them to act unfairly.111 If love can make you blind or too lenient in regard to the faults of a friend, what will your self-love do when you consider your own faults?
15. If a man wants to know the full truth about himself he will have to get rid of the beam of pride which blocks out the light from his eye,112 and then set up in his heart a ladder of humility so that he can search into himself. When he has climbed its twelve rungs he will then stand on the first step of truth. When he has seen the truth about himself, or better, when he has seen himself in truth, he will be able to say: "I believed, therefore I have spoken; but I have been exceedingly humbled."113 Such a man has come to a deep heart114 and truth is exalted. When he reaches the second step he will say in ecstacy: "Every man is a liar."115 This must have been the course that David trod. He experienced what was experienced by our Lord and by the Apostle, what we experience ourselves by their help and example. "I believed" he says; that means that he believed the words of Truth: "He who follows me will not walk in darkness;'"16 "I believed (and followed him) and therefore have I spoken"—to confess. To confess the truth which has been believed. After believing unto justice and speaking unto salvation "I have been humbled exceedingly,'"17
—that is perfectly. It is as if he said: Because I have not been ashamed to confess the known truth about myself, I have attained to the perfection of humility. We can take exceedl i a 2 Sam 18:5.
111. This provision found in all juridical codes is retained in present Church Law, Codex luris Canonici, canon 1613. Bernard would have been familiar with it in the Codex (AD 529) and Digest (AD 534) of Justinian.
112. Mt 7:5.
113. Ps 115:10.
114. Ps 63:7.
115. Ps 115:11.
116. Jn 8:12.
117. Jas 2:23.
The Steps of Humility and Pride V: 16 ingly (nimis) here to mean perfectly as in that other text: "In his commands he takes delight exceedingly.'"18 Some commentators would have it that "exceedingly" does not here mean "perfectly" but simply "very much."119 Even so, this fits the meaning of the Prophet well enough. We can think of him as saying: When as yet I did not fully know the truth,
I thought myself something, whereas I was nothing.120 But when I had come to know Christ, to imitate his humility, I saw the truth and exalted it in me by my confession, but "I myself was humbled exceedingly,"121 in my own eyes, I fell very low.
V. 16. The Psalmist has been humbled and now stands on the first step of truth. As he says in another psalm: "In your truth you have humbled me."122 Up to this he has been examining himself. Now he looks out from himself to others and thus passes to the second step of truth, exclaiming in his excess: "Every man is a liar." What is meant by "in his excess?"123 It means that he was carried away by feelings of mercy and compassion. What did he mean? He meant that every man is unreliable because too weak, helpless, and infirm to save either himself or others. It is in the same sense that the Psalmist says that "the horse is a deceptive hope of safety."124 The horse does not deceive anyone, but a man deceives himself when he trusts too much to the horse's strength.
That is what is meant by saying that "every man is a liar."
He is fragile and fickle and hope in him is deceptive either for himself or for others. Indeed, there is a "curse on the man who puts his trust in man."125 So the humble Prophet is led along his way by truth. He grieved at what he found in himself. He now sees the like in others. Sorrow and truth mount
118. Ps 111:1.
119. One such commentator would be St Anselm, Commentary on Psalm 111; PL 116:584. See also Bede, De Orthographia, PL 90:139.
12tt Gal 6:3.
121. Ps 115:10.
122. Ps 118:75.
123. Ps 115:10. Bernard indicates another sense in which "excess" can be taken in the next par. when he speaks of the "excesses" of the Pharisees.
124. Ps 32:17.
125.Jerl7:5.