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

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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.” 103
eturn to his suffering brothers and bear their burdens and sorrows with a Christ-like mercy born of genuine empathy. Of particular importance for the cultivation of this compassionate fraternal charity is the monk’s capacity to enter into and experience as his own his brother’s miseria or sinfulness and weakness. This for Bernard explains why the monk must first perceive the Truth in himself before he is able to perceive it in his brothers. Exploiting the etymology of the Latin word misericordia, the abbot teaches that those who would have true mercy towards the miseria in their brother’s heart must first have experienced the miseria in their own. Only once they have honestly acknowledged the truth of their sinfulness and weakness, how easily they are tempted and how prone they are to sin, can they recognize this same sinfulness and weakness in their brothers’ hearts and so love them with true understanding and mercy: Just as pure truth is perceived only by a pure heart, so a brother’s misery is more truly felt by a miserable heart. Yet if you are to have a heart merciful towards another’s misery, you must first recognize your own misery, that you might find your neighbor’s mind in your own, and from your own experience learn how to help him. 157 Only when the monk has first been humbled and made meek by the acknowledgement and confession of his own sinfulness and weakness can he truly recognize and feel that same sinfulness and weakness in his brother and so learn to bear his brother’s sins and failures with the same spirit of gentle, patient mercy that he would expect of his brother 157 Hum 6 (III, 21): “Sicut enim pura veritas non nisi puro corde videtur, sic miseria fratris verius misero corde sentitur. Sed ob alienam miseriam cor miserum habeas, oportet tuam prius agnoscas, ut proximi mentem in tua invenias, et ex te noveris qualiter illi subvenias.” 104
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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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and love as she is loved, and the B
Page 61 and 62: In the interim or “meanwhile” o
Page 63 and 64: Why do you judge yourself worthy to
Page 65 and 66: For Bernard, the lesson to be drawn
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Page 73 and 74: thousands of evils upon our entire
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Page 79 and 80: graciously condescending to assume
Page 81 and 82: Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
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Page 85 and 86: humbles himself will be exalted”
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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
Page 97 and 98: modeled and effected by the Word-ma
Page 99 and 100: Ignorance of self breeds pride when
Page 101 and 102: consideration of others and their a
Page 103 and 104: consideration of his treatise as a
Page 105 and 106: symmetry between these two parts an
Page 107 and 108: Though this discrepancy at first ap
Page 109 and 110: self, God, and neighbor. Since it i
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Page 119 and 120: sinful weakness and nothing of thei
Page 121 and 122: Finally, we should note that Bernar
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Page 127 and 128: condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
Page 129 and 130: will contrary to both the law of Go
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Page 135 and 136: his rule over the reprobate he woul
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Page 139 and 140: descending these early steps of pri
Page 141 and 142: pleases them and avoid what makes t
Page 143 and 144: knows.” 201 Should the topic of c
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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Page 155 and 156: monk’s descent into this deepest
Page 157 and 158: God in heaven. He will acknowledge
Page 159 and 160: Consumed by this self-centered love
Page 161 and 162: 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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