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

charity. Before seeking the Truth in his brothers by compassionate charity, however, he
must first seek the Truth in himself by humble self-judgment. Christ the Truth reveals
this order of ascent by his ordering of the beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount: he
places the meek before the merciful and the merciful before the clean of heart (Mt 5:4, 7-
8).
How, then, do the merciful or misericordes become the clean of heart or
mundicordes? The merciful, Bernard teaches, recognize the Truth in their brothers when
they extend their affections into the hearts of their brothers to such a degree that they
begin “to feel their neighbor’s joys and sorrows as if they were their very own.” 155 By
this affective identification with their brothers, this conformation of their affections to
their brothers’ in charity, the merciful soon begin to observe with the ease of habit Paul’s
command to “rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep” (Rom
12:15). When the merciful monk sees his brother to excel in the spiritual life, he rejoices
with his brother as if his brother’s growth in holiness were his own. When, on the other
hand, he sees his brother to struggle and fail in the spiritual life on account of his
persisting sinfulness and weakness, he will weep with his brother as if this struggle and
failure were likewise his. Through this fraternal charity, moreover, the merciful monk’s
heart will be so cleansed and conformed to the mercy of Christ that he will soon begin to
“delight in contemplating Truth in his own nature.” 156 Then, out of love for the Truth he
has delighted to see, and out of love for that same Truth present in his brothers, he will
155 Hum 6 (III, 20): “Misericordes quipped cito in proximis veritatem deprehendunt, dum suos
affectus in illos extendunt, dum sic per caritatem se illis conformant, ut illorum vel bona, vel mala,
tamquam propria sentient.”
156 Hum 6 (III, 21): “Hac caritate fraterna cordis acie mundata, veritatem delectantur in sui
contemplari natura, pro cuius amore mala tolerant aliena.”
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