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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

charity” given by the Spirit that binds the many together as one Bride. 311 Speaking of this robe, Bernard writes: Let us all strive together to form this one robe, and let one robe be made of us all. For though it is composed of many and diverse people, my dove, my beautiful and perfect one is only one (Sg 2:10; 6:8). For it is not I alone, nor you without me, nor someone else without us both, but all of us together who are this one dove, provided we take care to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 312 Bernard has already explained that this one robe given to the Bride is the Bridegroom’s own robe, dipped in the blood of his Cross. The abbot’s imagery suggests, then, that if the members of the Church are to form and wear this robe, they must be bound to one another in the humility and compassionate love the Incarnate Word exemplifies and effects above all in his Passion. The Anima-Sponsa, then, will not be able to conceive of herself apart from her fellow members in the Church, nor scorn her fellows like the proud, self-deceived monk Bernard describes in his steps of pride. On the contrary, she will embrace her brothers and sisters with Christ’s own humility and compassion, for she knows that to be herself is to be bound in the Spirit with them and that it only with them that she will most fully realize her own being as the Bridegroom’s only Bride. 311 Apo 6 (III, 86): “Inconsutilem vero propter indissolubilis caritatis individuam unitatem.” This and the following translations of the Apologia are my own. The reader should however consult the English translation by Michael Caesy in Cisctercians and Cluniacs: St Bernard’s Apologia to Abbot William (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1970), 33-69. 312 Apo 7 (III, 87): “Omnes ergo pariter occurramus in unam tunicam, et ex omnibus constet una. Ex omnibus, inquam, una: nam etsi ex pluribus et diversis, una est tamen columba mea, formosa mea, perfecta mea. Alioquin nec ego solus, nec tu sine me, nec ille absque utroque, sed simul omnes sumus illa una, si tamen solliciti sumus servare unitatem spiritus in vinculo pacis.” 197
Conclusion Having considered three of Bernard’s most significant itineraries of the soul’s ascent to God, we can now glean some general conclusions concerning his overarching vision of the ascent of self-knowledge the soul experiences as it is progressively restored in the divine likeness it lost through sin. In his very first itinerary of the spiritual life, On the Steps of Humility and Pride of 1125, Bernard has already identified the major moments or milestones of this journey of the soul’s developing self-awareness from the humbling self-knowledge acquired in its initial conversion to the joyous self-awareness as the Bride it achieves at the culmination of its ascent. Prior to its initial conversion, the soul that has descended to one degree or another the steps of pride lacks any true self- knowledge for it is subject to a false self-knowledge, or self-deception, which assumes an increasingly perverse form as the soul slides deeper into pride. At the root of this self- deception, in whatever form it may take, is the soul’s curiositas, its sensitive and mental fascination with others that distracts it from its proper task of self-judgment in the light of Truth. For Bernard, the addictive power of this curiosity coupled with the conceited delight the soul enjoys in its self-deception are so great that the soul is, of itself, powerless to recognize its present self-deception, let alone judge it as false. Consequently, it is only the prevenient grace of the Word that can recall the soul’s curiosity to itself and compel the soul to face the bitter reality of its sin and misery in the unerring light of Truth. When the Word does recall the soul to its own heart, and there reveals to it the sad history of its own sin, the soul can only be filled with guilt, shame, and fear of divine judgment, a theme Bernard develops to great effect through his image of the soul as courtroom in the opening of his On Conversion. Yet, as Bernard 198
Page 1 and 2:
MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 3 and 4:
MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 5 and 6:
To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, S
Page 7 and 8:
Christ as the Model of Self-Knowled
Page 9 and 10:
esearch: John Cavadini, Cyril O’R
Page 11 and 12:
self-knowledge is the indispensible
Page 13 and 14:
For Bernard, then, humble self-know
Page 15 and 16:
likeness of charity. Within the Cis
Page 17 and 18:
When Gilson asserted that by self-k
Page 19 and 20:
Bernard, Sommerfeldt continues, hum
Page 21 and 22:
a “false image” of himself. 26
Page 23 and 24:
some newfound and joyous moment of
Page 25 and 26:
ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
Page 27 and 28:
foundations of man’s return to Go
Page 29 and 30:
the descent of humility begins the
Page 31 and 32:
saving work of Jesus Christ in the
Page 33 and 34:
the humility, obedience, and love C
Page 35 and 36:
Of particular importance to Bernard
Page 37 and 38:
and second, “what it is like in i
Page 39 and 40:
In his ground-breaking study of med
Page 41 and 42:
direct links between the two. 52 It
Page 43 and 44:
swells in one’s heart that it mov
Page 45 and 46:
pride as “the desire for a perver
Page 47 and 48:
The knowledge of self and God in th
Page 49 and 50:
mercy until you renew all that is i
Page 51 and 52:
CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S
Page 53 and 54:
Prior to its first conversion, Bern
Page 55 and 56:
Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere
Page 57 and 58:
of God, they will grow ever more un
Page 59 and 60:
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
Page 67 and 68:
warning and why should it compel he
Page 69 and 70:
worldly things her flesh and senses
Page 71 and 72:
aspired to seize a kind of parody o
Page 73 and 74:
thousands of evils upon our entire
Page 75 and 76:
edemptive work is suitably adapted
Page 77 and 78:
emains forever, this grass too rema
Page 79 and 80:
graciously condescending to assume
Page 81 and 82:
Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
Page 83 and 84:
of self-knowledge enabled self-dece
Page 85 and 86:
humbles himself will be exalted”
Page 87 and 88:
Church, enabling scholars to instru
Page 89 and 90:
Through this unflinching self-exami
Page 91 and 92:
soon tempers my bitter vision of my
Page 93 and 94:
edeem him, sanctify him, and offer
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
Page 111 and 112:
estored in this divine likeness as
Page 113 and 114:
eturn to his suffering brothers and
Page 115 and 116:
much more should the monk not exalt
Page 117 and 118:
for your brother’s misery and not
Page 119 and 120:
sinful weakness and nothing of thei
Page 121 and 122:
Finally, we should note that Bernar
Page 123 and 124:
journey to which the monk will comm
Page 125 and 126:
and judge others or to see how they
Page 127 and 128:
condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
Page 129 and 130:
will contrary to both the law of Go
Page 131 and 132:
in him by her obedience to his will
Page 133 and 134:
contempt not only for herself and h
Page 135 and 136:
his rule over the reprobate he woul
Page 137 and 138:
in misery rather than to be subject
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
Page 147 and 148:
ut believe in his inmost heart that
Page 149 and 150:
Asserting Self-Will Against Superio
Page 151 and 152:
As so often in his narrative of the
Page 153 and 154:
who he is, everyone judges him, and
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
Page 163 and 164: done…by whoever would walk in the
Page 165 and 166: In recognizing the two distinct mom
Page 167 and 168: experience, lamenting how he has ma
Page 169 and 170: inward movement in the soul. In any
Page 171 and 172: share with them in that divine merc
Page 173 and 174: Operating inwardly within this judg
Page 175 and 176: the Truth in his own nature? Matter
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
Page 183 and 184: desperate need for the healing grac
Page 185 and 186: consolations afforded it by the lif
Page 187 and 188: thoroughly diseased: reason now see
Page 189 and 190: Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
Page 191 and 192: In this vision, reason is permitted
Page 193 and 194: conscience she enjoys through the m
Page 195 and 196: Word of God, “that living and eff
Page 197 and 198: knowledge and contempt of himself,
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: figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
Page 209 and 210: self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
Page 211 and 212: CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE M
Page 213 and 214: Christ’s incarnate, crucified, an
Page 215 and 216: indeed to the entirety of his theol
Page 217 and 218: significant individual expressions
Page 219 and 220: The foregoing elements of Bernard
Page 221 and 222: descended and ascended and showed u
Page 223 and 224: self, neighbor, and God. He has sho
Page 225 and 226: own, and from your own experience l
Page 227 and 228: excursus has been labeled a “digr
Page 229 and 230: “learned” (didicit) is being pr
Page 231 and 232: To resolve this question, Bernard r
Page 233 and 234: You see, therefore, that Christ is
Page 235 and 236: to the Spirit, by contemplation in
Page 237 and 238: worse, misguided view of the abbot
Page 239 and 240: Christ’s Ascension culminates in
Page 241 and 242: conformed to him. Then, through the
Page 243 and 244: Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
Page 245 and 246: The theme of Word’s example of vo
Page 247 and 248: equally deadly, extreme of despair.
Page 249 and 250: and humbled by God, so that there w
Page 251 and 252: as essential elements of the Word I
Page 253 and 254: led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
Page 255 and 256: delivered us from sin and enabled u
Page 257 and 258:
miseria and fires it with the confi
Page 259 and 260:
death to bring about a real, inward
Page 261 and 262:
sins,” “justification,” and
Page 263 and 264:
these life-giving virtues, we must
Page 265 and 266:
precisely through, a careful approp
Page 267 and 268:
perhaps she means, “My Beloved in
Page 269 and 270:
To such a soul, the abbot continues
Page 271 and 272:
gradually assuming the figure of Ch
Page 273 and 274:
to judge themselves in Truth, and s
Page 275 and 276:
ejoice with those who rejoice and w
Page 277 and 278:
love of himself in the glory of div
Page 279 and 280:
I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
Page 281 and 282:
------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
Page 283 and 284:
Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
Page 285 and 286:
------. “Le premier traité authe
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?