MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE ...

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We seek the Truth in ourselves, in our neighbors, and in his own nature. We seek the Truth in ourselves by judging ourselves, in our neighbors by having compassion for them in their sufferings, and in his own nature by contemplating him with a clean heart. 152 Here Bernard offers in his original formulation the same fundamental progression of humility, charity, and contemplation that underlies his argument in SC 34-38. In the present formulation, however, this threefold progression is constructed not on the twofold foundation of the knowledge of self and God, but on the threefold foundation of the knowledge and love of self, neighbor, and God. In the first step of Truth, the monk will come to recognize the Truth in himself by judging himself in Truth, by honestly acknowledging and confessing the truth of his own miseria, his own sinfulness and weakness. In the second step of Truth, the monk who has recognized his own miseria will perceive that his brothers suffer from the very same sinfulness and weakness, and thereby learn truly compassionate charity for them in their shared miseria. Finally, in the third step of Truth, the monk whose heart has been cleansed by his progressive conformity to the humility and compassionate charity of Christ will contemplate Christ the Truth in his own nature. Though Bernard does not in the Steps invoke the doctrine of humanity’s creation in the image and likeness of God as he does in SC 34-38, that doctrine’s same basic principles apply to his teaching in the present context. The monk who has been created in the divine image but lost the divine likeness through original and personal sin will be 152 Hum 6 (III, 20): “Inquirimus namque veritatem in nobis, in proximis, in sui natura. In nobis, nosmetipsos diiudicando; in proximis, eorum malis compatiendo; in sui natura, mundo corde contemplando.” All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. The reader should, however, consult the following English translations from which I have profited: The Twelve Degrees of Humility and Pride, trans. Barton R.V. Mills (London: SPCK, 1929); The Steps of Humility, trans. George Bosworth Burch (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1963); The Steps of Humility and Pride, trans. M. Ambrose Conway (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1973). 101
estored in this divine likeness as he comes to imitate and participate in the Incarnate Word’s humility and charity. As he is ever more likened to God made manifest in the sacred humanity of Christ, he is by the principle of knowledge through resemblance ever more able to know, love, and contemplate God, and so to share in God’s own divine life, imperfectly in this life, but perfectly in the life to come. Earlier in the Steps, Bernard assigns each of these three degrees of Truth, humility, compassionate charity, and contemplation, to the three traditional stages of the spiritual life. 153 In the first stage, that of the beginners, the monk will come to know the Truth in himself by humble self-judgment. In the second, that of the proficient, he will come to know the Truth in his brothers by compassionate charity. In the third, that of the perfect, he will come to know the Truth in his own nature by contemplating Truth with a heart cleansed by humility and love. The three steps of Truth therefore comprise a tripartite itinerary of the spiritual life from conversion to eschatological vision. 154 Beyond simply identifying these three stages of the spiritual life, Bernard takes great care to explain the relationships between them. Before seeking the Truth in his own nature by contemplation, the monk must first seek him in his brothers by compassionate 153 See Hum 4-5 (III, 19-20). Bernard McGinn argues that though the abbot employs various enumerations of the stages of the soul’s progress in the spiritual life, such as the twelve steps of humility and pride in the Steps or the four degrees of love in De Diligendo Deo, “Bernard’s most frequent mode of presenting the soul’s progress is through a threefold division: stages well known in Christianity since the time of Origen and whose classic form had been shaped by the writings of the Pseudo-Dionysius – the division into ascetical purification, virtuous illumination, and loving union, later canonized as the via purgativa, via illuminativa, and via unitiva.” McGinn goes on to note that while Bernard does not use these terms themselves, “his formulations are variations on the same pattern.” McGinn, “Bernard of Clairvaux: ‘That Contemplative’ (Quel Contemplante),” 183. In the present instance, Bernard’s three steps of truth correspond to the purgative, illuminative, and contemplative ways respectively. 154 It should also be noted that Bernard’s tripartite schema structured according to the progression from beginners (incipientes) to the proficient (proficientes) to the perfect (perfecti) respectively closely resembles that presented by his friend and fellow Cistercian William of Saint Thierry in his Golden Epistle. See Epistola ad Fratres de Monte Dei 41 (CCCM 88:236). 102
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MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
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MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
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To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, S
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Christ as the Model of Self-Knowled
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esearch: John Cavadini, Cyril O’R
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self-knowledge is the indispensible
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For Bernard, then, humble self-know
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likeness of charity. Within the Cis
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When Gilson asserted that by self-k
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Bernard, Sommerfeldt continues, hum
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a “false image” of himself. 26
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some newfound and joyous moment of
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ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
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foundations of man’s return to Go
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the descent of humility begins the
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saving work of Jesus Christ in the
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the humility, obedience, and love C
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Of particular importance to Bernard
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and second, “what it is like in i
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In his ground-breaking study of med
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direct links between the two. 52 It
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swells in one’s heart that it mov
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pride as “the desire for a perver
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The knowledge of self and God in th
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mercy until you renew all that is i
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CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S
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Prior to its first conversion, Bern
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Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere
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of God, they will grow ever more un
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Page 65 and 66: For Bernard, the lesson to be drawn
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Page 81 and 82: Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
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Page 89 and 90: Through this unflinching self-exami
Page 91 and 92: soon tempers my bitter vision of my
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Page 95 and 96: As observed above, in the second ha
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Page 99 and 100: Ignorance of self breeds pride when
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Page 109: self, God, and neighbor. Since it i
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Page 121 and 122: Finally, we should note that Bernar
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Page 145 and 146: Here abbot Bernard figures the prou
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Page 149 and 150: Asserting Self-Will Against Superio
Page 151 and 152: As so often in his narrative of the
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their hearts. Hence Bernard’s fre
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done…by whoever would walk in the
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In recognizing the two distinct mom
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experience, lamenting how he has ma
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inward movement in the soul. In any
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share with them in that divine merc
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Operating inwardly within this judg
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the Truth in his own nature? Matter
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arguing from both allusions in text
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upon the “stage” of the soul an
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(Is 46:8). For Bernard, this first
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desperate need for the healing grac
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consolations afforded it by the lif
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thoroughly diseased: reason now see
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Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
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In this vision, reason is permitted
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conscience she enjoys through the m
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Word of God, “that living and eff
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knowledge and contempt of himself,
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The Self-Awareness of the Bride in
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When the brightness of this beauty
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For Bernard, then, the soul that ha
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figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
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Conclusion Having considered three
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self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
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CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE M
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Christ’s incarnate, crucified, an
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indeed to the entirety of his theol
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significant individual expressions
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The foregoing elements of Bernard
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descended and ascended and showed u
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self, neighbor, and God. He has sho
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own, and from your own experience l
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excursus has been labeled a “digr
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“learned” (didicit) is being pr
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To resolve this question, Bernard r
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You see, therefore, that Christ is
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to the Spirit, by contemplation in
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worse, misguided view of the abbot
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Christ’s Ascension culminates in
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conformed to him. Then, through the
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Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
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The theme of Word’s example of vo
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equally deadly, extreme of despair.
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and humbled by God, so that there w
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as essential elements of the Word I
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led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
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delivered us from sin and enabled u
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miseria and fires it with the confi
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death to bring about a real, inward
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sins,” “justification,” and
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these life-giving virtues, we must
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precisely through, a careful approp
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perhaps she means, “My Beloved in
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To such a soul, the abbot continues
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gradually assuming the figure of Ch
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to judge themselves in Truth, and s
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ejoice with those who rejoice and w
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love of himself in the glory of div
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I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
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------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
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Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
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------. “Le premier traité authe
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