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

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complete and eschatological fulfillment. In the meanwhile, when returned to herself, she delights to give herself to her brothers and sisters in compassionate love for she knows that she is only Christ’s Bride insofar as she realizes within herself and participates in Christ’s one Bride, the Church. As she grows ever more into the form of Christ’s Bride and grows ever more aware of this truth within herself, she is inflamed with confident expectation of that eternal day when, with her will entirely conformed to her Bridegroom’s, she will forget her very self and pass over entirely into God. 313 Finally, in our consideration of these three paradigmatic itineraries of the soul’s ascent to God, we saw that Bernard consistently affirms the priority of divine grace in the soul’s restoration in the lost divine likeness and throughout the soul’s journey of developing self-awareness as Christ’s Bride. The soul immersed in curiosity and self- deception does not come to know itself in truth as a disfigured image of God save by the prevenient action of the Word calling the soul to conversion. Again, the soul that has been converted first to its own heart and then to the Word is only is restored in the lost divine likeness, and only arrives at its new self-awareness as the Sponsa Christi, by the continuing graced action of the Word, and the Spirit, throughout its ascent to God. For this reason, the Anima-Sponsa is filled with gratitude and love for her divine Bridegroom, not only recognizing herself as conformed to his own beauty, but also acknowledging with humility and thanksgiving that she owes all her newfound beauty to the grace of Verbum-Sponsus. Therefore, in the following chapter, we will consider the soul’s ascent to self-knowledge from the perspective of the Word who, for Bernard, both models and effects the soul’s ascent by his own journey of self-knowledge in his Incarnation. 313 See Dil 27-28 (III, 142-143). 201
CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE MYSTERIES OF CHRIST’S LIFE In the three preceding chapters, we have examined Bernard’s comprehensive doctrine of self-knowledge in the spiritual life from the self-deception of the proud, self- willed soul prior to its first conversion to the graced soul’s joyous self-knowledge as Christ’s beloved Bride, radiant with the likeness of his own humility and love. Along the way, we have had occasion to see how, for Bernard, Christ the Incarnate Word plays an integral role in the soul’s journey from self-deception to its newfound self-awareness as his Spouse. To complete our examination of the abbot’s comprehensive doctrine of self- knowledge, then, it will be necessary to explore in much greater depth the place of Christ in Bernard’s account of the soul’s growth in self-knowledge. Such an exploration is the focus of the present chapter. The scholarship concerning Bernard’s Christology is, of course, vast. 314 Yet, there is at present no study devoted specifically to the intersection of Christology, soteriology, 314 Some of the most important studies are the following. J.-M. Déchanet, “La christologie de saint Bernard,” Saint Bernard Théologien, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 9 (1953): 78-91; Alberich Altermatt, “Christus pro nobis: Die Christologie Bernhards von Clairvaux in den ‘Sermones per annum,’” Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 33 (1977): 1-176; A. van den Bosch, “Christologie bernadine,” Cîteaux 9 (1958):5-17; “Présupposés á la christologie bernadine,” Cîteaux 9 (1958): 85-105; “Le mystère de l’Incarnation chez Saint Bernard,” Cîteaux 10 (1959): 85-92; 165-177; 245-267; “Dieu rendu accessible dans le Christ d’àpres saint Bernard,” Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensum Reformatorum 21 (1959): 185- 205; “Dieu devenu connaissable dans le Christ d’àpres saint Bernard,” Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensum Reformatorum 22 (1960): 11-20; “Dieu devenu imitable dans le Christ d’àpres saint Bernard,” Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensum Reformatorum 22 (1960): 341-355; “Dieu devenu aimable dans le Christ d’àpres 202
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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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in misery rather than to be subject
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descending these early steps of pri
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pleases them and avoid what makes t
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knows.” 201 Should the topic of c
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Here abbot Bernard figures the prou
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ut believe in his inmost heart that
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Asserting Self-Will Against Superio
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As so often in his narrative of the
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who he is, everyone judges him, and
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monk’s descent into this deepest
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God in heaven. He will acknowledge
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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
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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
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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
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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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