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

Operating inwardly within this judged but still rebellious will, the Spirit purges it of those
concupiscent desires which give rise to all self-will and infuses it with the gift of charity,
inflaming it with the affection of love and rendering it merciful even to the point of the
love of enemies. Again, the will is moved to this compassionate charity not merely by
the Word’s inspiring, exemplary compassion in his Incarnation, but also by the Spirit’s
gift of charity in the will, a certain accidental quality distinct from the substantial Charity
which God is, 248 out of which the graced soul will now love God and all things for the
sake of God in accordance with the divine will. Thus, “from this second conjunction of
the Spirit of God and the human will, charity is born.” 249
Finally, having traced the soul’s ascent of the first two steps of Truth by the
graced missions of Son and Spirit, Bernard describes how, in the third step of Truth, this
perfected soul may be rapt to the Father as his own glorious Bride. 250 In the tradition of
highest and ineffable unity in the highest and most blessed Trinity except charity? Charity is therefore a
law, and the law of God, which in a certain way holds and unites the Trinity in the bond of peace.” Dil 35
(III, 149). Bernard’s friend and contemporary William of Saint-Thierry often made this appropriation
explicit, most notably in his Golden Epistle 263 (CCCM 88:282). Both Cistercians here follow
Augustine’s teaching in De Trinitate XV that the name charity may properly be assigned to the divine
person of the Spirit. De Trinitate XV.17.29 (CCSL 50A).
248 Bernard makes this distinction explicit in On Loving God when he writes: “Therefore it is
rightly said that charity is God and is the gift of God. Thus charity gives charity; substantial Charity gives
accidental charity. Where it signifies the Giver, it is given the name of substance; where it signifies the
gift, it is given the name quality.” Dil 35 (III, 150). Here again, Bernard is consistent with William of
Saint-Thierry who draws the same distinction between charity as substance in God and as quality in the
soul in his On the Nature and Dignity of Love 12 (CCCM 88:187).
caritas efficitur.”
249 Hum 21 (III, 32): “Et sic ex hac secunda coniunctione Spiritus Dei et voluntatis humanae,
250 Here in his earliest treatise, the Steps, Bernard identifies the person of the Father as the soul’s
divine Bridegroom. As we will see below, by the time of his Sermons on the Song of Songs, begun in 1135,
Bernard has definitively settled on the person of the Word as the soul’s divine Spouse.
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