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

The foregoing elements of Bernard’s systematic Christological vision are
succinctly expressed in the abbot’s sixtieth sermon De Diversis, on the feast of the
Ascension. Bernard’s text is Jn 3:13, Nemo ascendit in caelum, nisi qui de caelo
descendit, Filius hominis, qui est in caelo (No one ascends into heaven except he who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven). As McGinn has argued, this
Scriptural “descent-ascent motif” serves as “a fundamental premiss” of the abbot’s
Christology; for Bernard, McGinn suggests, “The essential work of Christ…is to descend
that he might ascend.” 321
From the very outset of his commentary on John 3:13, Bernard is keen to
emphasize the close relationship between Christ’s Person and his saving work. The
Word of God has descended and ascended in the flesh for the sake of our salvation and,
more precisely, in order to reveal how human beings might themselves ascend to God
after his example. As we noted in Chapter 1, the abbot believes that human beings as
created images of God possess an innate desire to ascend, and this innate desire is
laudable, for this is why God has created them. As Bernard writes in his fourth sermon
for the Ascension, “We all desire to ascend. We all long for exaltation. For we are noble
creatures, possessing a certain greatness of soul, and so we long for the heights with a
natural desire.” 322 God does not fault human beings for their desire to ascend, but rather
for the proud way in which they attempt to ascend by themselves. For, as we saw in
Chapter 2 through our study of Bernard’s steps of pride, Bernard believes that human
321 McGinn, “Resurrection and Ascension in the Christology of the Early Cistercians,” 10-11.
322 4 Asc 3 (V, 139-140): “Cupidi siquidem sumus ascensionis: exaltationem concupiscimus
omnes. Nobiles enim creaturae sumus, et magni cuiusdam animi, ideo que altitudinem naturali appetimus
desiderio.”
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