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

vision of God soon tempers my bitter vision of myself.” 4 Indeed the pursuit of the
knowledge of self, and the knowledge of God that emerges within this pursuit, was of
such importance to Bernard that he made these the twin foundations of his entire spiritual
theology and his entire conception of the Cistercian life. So, in the conclusion to his fifth
sermon De diversis, the abbot was able to write:
The sum total of our spiritual life consists in these two things:
when we consider ourselves, we are troubled and saddened to our
salvation, but when we consider God, we are revivified and
consoled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. From the knowledge of
ourselves, we conceive fear and humility, but from the knowledge
of God, hope and love. 5
As a devoted son of Benedict and a leading Cistercian champion of fidelity to his Rule,
Bernard knew well that the primary aim of the Benedictine life is to seek the knowledge
of God. 6 Particular to his own monastic spirituality, however, is Bernard’s insistence that
it is only through genuine self-knowledge that one arrives at the true knowledge of God.
For unless one has first honestly acknowledged the humbling truth of his or her fallen
condition, as an image of God disfigured by sin, one is not moved to seek God’s healing
or to know him in the truth of his compassionate love revealed in Christ and the Spirit.
4 SC 36.6 (II, 24): “Si autem suspexero et levavero oculos ad divinae miserationis auxilium,
temperabit mox amaram visionem mei laeta visio Dei.”
5 Div 5.5 (VI-I, 104): “In his enim duobus tota spiritualis conversationis summa versatur, ut in
nostra consideratione turbemur et contristemur ad salutem, in divina respiremus et de gaudio Spiritus Sancti
habeamus consolationem; et hinc timorem et humilitatem, inde vero spem concipiamus et caritatem.” See
Denis Farkasfalvy, “Bernard’s Concept of the Spiritual Life,” Analecta Cisterciensia 53 (1997): 3-14.
6 In Chapter 58 of his Regula, Benedict in effect defines the essence of his conception of monastic
life when he legislates a novice should only be admitted to full profession if he “truly seeks God…and
shows eagerness for the Word of God, for obedience, and for trials.” Regula Sancti Benedicti, Chapter 58,
verse 7: “Sollicitudo sit si revera Deum quaerit, si sollicitus est ad opus Dei, ad oboedientiam, ad
opprobria.” The Latin text and, with some modifications, the English translation of Benedict’s Regula is
taken from RB 1980: The Rule of Benedict in Latin and English with Notes, eds. Timothy Fry et al.
(Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1981). References to the Regula, hereafter RB, will be given by
chapter and verse number; e.g. RB 58.7.
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