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

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nature when we contemplate him with a pure heart.” 328 The monk’s growing recognition of the Truth in himself, his brothers, and in Truth’s own nature will proceed through his growth in the three virtues of humility, compassionate charity, and contemplation respectively. For Bernard, moreover, the monk will ascend these three steps of Truth in order, because these steps are arranged according to a certain psychological sequence. The monk must seek the Truth in his brothers before seeking Truth in his own nature, and must seek the Truth in himself before seeking the Truth in his brothers. Christ, the Truth himself, indicated this progression in the ordering of his beatitudes: he places the merciful before the pure of heart, and the meek before the merciful (Mt 5:3-12). Having noted this order, Bernard then traces the relationships between these steps in turn. First, the monk must seek the Truth in himself before seeking it in his brothers. This is so, Bernard argues, because we can only truly perceive the Truth in another when we discern and learn compassion for the sufferings of others, and most especially their miseria; that is, how prone they are to sin and how easily they are tempted. Yet since we have no direct access to the sufferings others experience within themselves, we must learn to feel their miseria by learning to feel our own through a kind of creative empathy. As Bernard writes: “If you are to have a heart merciful towards another’s misery, you must first recognize your own misery, that you might find your neighbor’s mind in your 328 Hum 6 (III, 20): “Inquirimus namque veritatem in nobis, in proximis, in sui natura. In nobis, nosmetipsos diiudicando; in proximis, eorum malis compatiendo; in sui natura, mundo corde contemplando.” 215
own, and from your own experience learn how to help him.” 329 Yet, to know our own miseria, we must first engage in the difficult work of self-knowledge, honestly acknowledging the humbling truth of our own sinfulness and weakness that we might learn to see and to have mercy on that same sinfulness and weakness in others. For Bernard, only this humbling recognition of our own sufferings will allow us to treat others with forgiveness, understanding, gentleness, and genuinely compassionate love. As long as we remain insensitive to, or self-deceived to, the truth of our own fallenness, we will be far more inclined, Bernard suggests, to treat others with thoughtless insensitivity, prideful scorn, and hard-hearted contempt. As we saw in Chapter 2, Bernard shows through his narration of the twelve steps of pride how the monk who lacks true self-knowledge born of humble self-judgment will, by degrees, come to regard his fellows first as contemptible inferiors to be valued only insofar as they sing his praises, then as subjects for his rapacious libido dominandi, and, finally, as mere objects for the satisfaction of his fleshly lusts. Though the task of true self-knowledge and genuine compassion for one’s brothers is by no means always easy or pleasant, it is, Bernard suggests, the only true way to ascend to God. The momentary, but ultimately specious, sense of self-inflated superiority the monk may find in scorning his brothers as inferiors may feel like a sort of an ascent, and even a sort of divinity, but it is, in truth, a descent, for it makes the monk proud and self-willed, less like the Word Incarnate, and so far from the likeness of God. If, on the other hand, the monk embraces the way of humility and compassion, he begins 329 Hum 6 (III, 21): “Sicut enim pura veritas non nisi puro corde videtur, sic miseria fratris verius misero corde sentitur. Sed ob alienam miseriam cor miserum habeas, oportet tuam prius agnoscas, ut proximi mentem in tua invenias, et ex te noveris qualiter illi subvenias.” 216
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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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Consumed by this self-centered love
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their hearts. Hence Bernard’s fre
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done…by whoever would walk in the
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In recognizing the two distinct mom
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experience, lamenting how he has ma
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inward movement in the soul. In any
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share with them in that divine merc
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 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
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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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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
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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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Page 253 and 254: led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
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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
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Page 273 and 274: 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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