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

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Gregory the Great, 251 the abbot explains that in this graced, transient, and ultimately ineffable contemplative amplexus or embrace, the soul as Bride “momentarily glimpses the secrets of Truth” in her heart and then, returned to herself, feeds on these secrets in her memory. 252 Recounting the soul’s ascent to this vision of the Truth, Bernard writes: At last the soul is perfected in its two parts, the reason and the will, the one taught by the Word of Truth, the other inspired by the Spirit of Truth, the one sprinkled with the hyssop of humility, the other enflamed with the fire of charity, spotless on account of its humility, without wrinkle in virtue of its charity, since neither the will rebels against reason, nor does reason deceive itself as to the Truth. This perfected soul the Father binds to himself as his own glorious Bride, so that the reason no longer thinks of itself, nor the will of others, but this blessed soul delights in saying only this: “The King has led me into his chamber” (Sg 1:3; 3:4). 253 Read with an eye to the abbot’s theology of self-knowledge, this account of the soul’s rapture to the Father is, to say the least, puzzling. On the one hand, Bernard avers that in this rapture, the soul’s reason “no longer thinks of itself,” suggesting that the soul is now so absorbed in the knowledge and love of God as to be forgetful of itself. On the other hand, Bernard places in the mouth of the rapt soul one of the Bride’s most strikingly self- reflexive exclamations from the Canticle: “The King has led me into his chamber.” Is Bernard denying or affirming the soul’s self-awareness in its contemplative glimpse of 251 Throughout his account of the ascent to the third step of Truth in Hum 21ff, Bernard’s choice of language and associated Scriptural verses evinces his dependence on Gregory’s treatment of Sg 1:3, Introduxit me Rex in cubiculum suum, in his Expositio in Cantica canticorum 26 (SCh 314:108-110). 252 Hum 21 (III, 32-33): “Ibi modicum, hora videlicet quasi dimidia, silentio facto in caelo, inter desideratos amplexus suaviter quiescens ipsa quidem dormit, sed cor eius vigilat, quo utique interim veritatis arcana rimatur, quorum postmodum memoria statim ad se reditura pascatur.” 253 Hum 21 (III, 32): “Utramque vero partem, rationem scilicet ac voluntatem, alteram verbo veritatis instructam, alteram spiritu veritatis afflatam, illam hyssopo humilitatis aspersam, hanc igne caritatis succensam, tandem iam perfectam animam, propter humilitatem sine macula, propter caritatem sine ruga, cum nec voluntas rationi repugnat, nec ratio veritatem dissimulat, gloriosam sibi sponsam Pater conglutinat, ita ut nec ratio de se, nec voluntas de proximo cogitare sinatur, sed hoc solum beata illa anima dicere delectetur: Introduxit me Rex in cubiculum suum.” 165
the Truth in his own nature? Matters are only further complicated a few lines later when, describing the soul’s descent from this vision, Bernard explains that the soul’s third power, memory, will feed on the secrets of Truth the soul has glimpsed “when the soul has returned to itself.” 254 Neither here nor elsewhere in the text of the Steps does Bernard attempt to offer a solution to this conundrum concerning the soul’s seemingly simultaneous self- forgetfulness and self-awareness in its experience of the contemplative vision of God. Consequently, it is difficult to determine if he believes that the soul’s graced knowledge of God in its rapture to the Father excludes or permits in that moment its knowledge of itself as Christ’s Bride. What is, however, clear from the text is Bernard’s conviction that the soul which has ascended the first two steps of Truth now enjoys a self-awareness quite different from that it suffered in the first moments of her conversion to the Truth. At its conversion, the soul was ashamed to contemplate its own face, disgusted by the ugliness of its own disfigured countenance, and compelled to acknowledge with tears the inescapable truth of its self-imposed enslavement to sin and misery. Now, however, once reformed in the divine likeness of the Incarnate Word’s own humility and love by the graced missions of Son and Spirit, the soul finds itself at peace. What is more, the soul now even delights to recognize herself as Christ’s own Bride, led into the marriage chamber of her King, and sees in her own face the very beauty of her Bridegroom, without spot or wrinkle. This Anima-Sponsa may, moreover, be entirely confident that the beauty she now discerns within herself is no self-deception, for she senses within 254 Hum 21 (III, 33): ““Ibi modicum, hora videlicet quasi dimidia, silentio facto in caelo, inter desideratos amplexus suaviter quiescens ipsa quidem dormit, sed cor eius vigilat, quo utique interim veritatis arcana rimatur, quorum postmodum memoria statim ad se reditura pascatur.” 166
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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
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In the interim or “meanwhile” o
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Why do you judge yourself worthy to
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For Bernard, the lesson to be drawn
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warning and why should it compel he
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worldly things her flesh and senses
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aspired to seize a kind of parody o
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thousands of evils upon our entire
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edemptive work is suitably adapted
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emains forever, this grass too rema
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graciously condescending to assume
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Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
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of self-knowledge enabled self-dece
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humbles himself will be exalted”
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Church, enabling scholars to instru
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Through this unflinching self-exami
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soon tempers my bitter vision of my
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edeem him, sanctify him, and offer
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As observed above, in the second ha
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modeled and effected by the Word-ma
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Ignorance of self breeds pride when
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consideration of others and their a
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consideration of his treatise as a
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symmetry between these two parts an
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Though this discrepancy at first ap
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self, God, and neighbor. Since it i
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estored in this divine likeness as
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eturn to his suffering brothers and
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much more should the monk not exalt
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for your brother’s misery and not
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sinful weakness and nothing of thei
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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
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Page 165 and 166: In recognizing the two distinct mom
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Page 179 and 180: upon the “stage” of the soul an
Page 181 and 182: (Is 46:8). For Bernard, this first
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Page 189 and 190: Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
Page 191 and 192: In this vision, reason is permitted
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Page 199 and 200: The Self-Awareness of the Bride in
Page 201 and 202: When the brightness of this beauty
Page 203 and 204: For Bernard, then, the soul that ha
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Page 207 and 208: Conclusion Having considered three
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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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