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

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to be likened to the humility and compassion of the Word-made-flesh, and so begins, by the principle of knowledge through resemblance, to ascend to, and see, the Truth in his own nature. With the eye of his heart washed pure by humility and love, the monk will begin to ascend towards, and to see, God, by a kind of indistinct and transient contemplative glimpse that is itself the foretaste of the distinct, abiding beatific vision of God in glory. In the midst of his account of these three steps of Truth and their sequential relations, it is somewhat surprising to find that while discussing the link between the first and second steps of Truth, between genuine self-knowledge and compassionate fraternal love, Bernard suddenly interrupts his schema to introduce the example of Jesus. If the monk indeed makes this empathetic move from the knowledge of his own miseria to merciful compassion for his brother in his, he will imitate the Savior. To resume the passage just quoted: 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 own, and from your own experience learn how to help him. In this way, you will imitate the example of our Savior, who willed to suffer that he might learn compassion, to share our misery that he might learn mercy. For just as it is said of him, “He learned obedience from the things he suffered” (Heb 5:8), so in the same way, he learned mercy. 330 Bernard’s provocative interjection immediately occasions a lengthy excursus on the theme of the Word’s Incarnation, his descent and ascent in the flesh. Though Bernard’s 330 Hum 6 (III, 21): “Sed ut ob alienam miseriam cor miserum habeas, oportet tuam prius agnoscas, ut proximi mentem in tua invenias, et ex te noveris qualiter illi subvenias, exemplo scilicet Salvatoris nostri, qui pati voluit ut compati sciret, miser fieri ut misereri disceret, ut quomodo de ipso scriptum est: ET DIDICIT EX H<strong>IS</strong> QUAE PASSUS EST OBOEDIENTI<strong>AM</strong>, ita disceret et misericordiam.” 217
excursus has been labeled a “digression” from his main argument, 331 and though the abbot himself admits as much, 332 it would be a mistake to treat his teaching in these paragraphs as somehow insignificant to his main argument in the Steps or, indeed, his broader spiritual doctrine. On the contrary, Bernard’s excursus contains one of the most significant and subtle statements of his Christology and is, in the overall plan of his Steps, purposefully parallel to a second “digression” in his work’s second half that concerns the false ascents of Satan, Adam, and Eve. As we saw in Chapter 2, Bernard there argues that through their primordial and paradigmatic pride and self-will, Satan, Adam, and Eve exalted themselves towards a share in Christ’s divinity only to be humbled by their descent into misery. In the saving act of his Incarnation, conversely, the Word will humbly assume human nature and its misery in order that he might learn compassionate mercy for fallen humanity and, by his exemplary humility and love, reveal to fallen human beings the authentic way of ascent to the Truth they all innately yearn for and seek. Yet, as Bernard’s excursus will show, the Word-made-flesh does not simply model these transformative virtues of humility and charity by his exemplary descent and ascent. More than this, the Word as Incarnate authentically learns and grows in these virtues in a genuinely human way that he might be the life-giving source of these virtues for those who follow him in faith. This is why, in the opening to his Steps, Bernard insists that Christ is not only the Way that leads to Truth, but also the Life, the viaticum or life-giving food which sustains and nourishes those traveling along this Way. 331 Basil Pennington, “Introduction,” The Steps of Humility and Pride, 14. 332 See Hum 13 (III, 26). 218
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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
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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
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 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
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Page 225: own, and from your own experience l
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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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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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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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