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

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).
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