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

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partner, the will. And so reason addresses a speech to the will, a stern rebuke: “You must acknowledge that your wicked and useless servant [i.e., the flesh] has never afforded you even the slightest measure of satisfaction despite all its service to you!” 279 Reviewing in turn each aspect of the will’s triplex malignitas, reason argues that will should know from her own experience that fleshly pleasures fade, that her curiosity remains ever restless, and that whatever human praise her ambition has acquired has never once slaked her deepest, innate longings. Deluded by the vain promises of the world, reason argues, the soul has forgotten the nobility of its own nature, that is a “a noble creature, capable of eternal blessedness.” 280 Though created in God’s image, redeemed by the Incarnate Word, and adopted in the Spirit, the soul has preferred to give itself over to the passing delights of creation rather than to cling to the God in whose image it has been made by knowledge and by love. Resuming the Augustinian theme of the Prodigal Son in his wanderings, reason wonders why such a noble creature should trade heavenly food for the slop of pigs, and leave its divine Spouse to fornicate among the good things God has made. Implicit in reason’s rebuke is the argument Bernard advances in On Loving God, namely that the very dissatisfaction the will experiences in the possession of all that falls short of God surely reveals that the will is made for God alone; the persistence of her desire discloses the only possible source of its fulfillment. 281 279 Conv 13 (IV, 87): “, ait, ” 280 Conv 15 (IV, 89): “Egregia creatura, capax aeternae beatitudinis.” 281 See Dil 19 (III, 135-136). 179
Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and his arguments compelling; they reflect the self- knowledge reason has acquired in the painful but instructive contemplation of the soul’s wounds. Yet however well they may reflect the truth of the human being, Bernard explains, reason’s arguments fail to loose her wife the will from the bonds of sinful habit that irresistibly draw her to the consolations of the world. In fact, reason’s arguments only arouse more violent resistance from the will. Narrating will’s reply to her husband’s rebuke, Bernard writes: The will may be moved not at all by the suggestions of reason, but on the contrary be aroused with fury and rejoin, “How long must I suffer you! Your preaching has no hold on me. I know that you are clever, but your cleverness has no place in me.” Then summoning her bodily members to her aide, she may order them to be even more solicitous than before in obeying her lustful desires. 282 Speaking from his long experience as a father of souls, abbot Bernard observes that “We learn from daily experience that those who resolved upon conversion are more severely tempted by the sinful desires of the flesh.” 283 Like the Israelites in their wanderings, the soul that has set itself to flee Pharaoh is often strongly compelled to return to its slavery in Egypt. By the end of his second act, Bernard has left his readers with the figure of a soul much like Augustine’s in Book VIII of the Confessions. Reason has been converted to 282 Conv 22 (IV, 95): “Invenietur forsitan, quae nihil mota suggestionibus rationis, immo et gravi commota furore respondeat, dicens: . Forte et advocans membra singula, solito amplius solitis iubet oboedire concupiscentiis, nequitiis deservire.” 283 Conv 22 (IV, 95): “Hinc nimirum illud est quod quotidianis discimus experimentis, eos qui converti deliberant, tentari acrius a concupiscentia carnis, et urgeri gravius in operibus luti et lateris, qui Aegyptum egredi, Pharaonem effugere moliuntur.” 180
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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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journey to which the monk will comm
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and judge others or to see how they
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condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
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will contrary to both the law of Go
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in him by her obedience to his will
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contempt not only for herself and h
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his rule over the reprobate he woul
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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
Page 151 and 152: As so often in his narrative of the
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Page 161 and 162: their hearts. Hence Bernard’s fre
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Page 165 and 166: In recognizing the two distinct mom
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Page 173 and 174: Operating inwardly within this judg
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Page 177 and 178: arguing from both allusions in text
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 185 and 186: consolations afforded it by the lif
Page 187: thoroughly diseased: reason now see
Page 191 and 192: In this vision, reason is permitted
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Page 195 and 196: Word of God, “that living and eff
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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
Page 205 and 206: figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
Page 207 and 208: Conclusion Having considered three
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Page 219 and 220: The foregoing elements of Bernard
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Page 231 and 232: To resolve this question, Bernard r
Page 233 and 234: You see, therefore, that Christ is
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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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