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

Bernard, each of the mysteries of the Word’s descent and ascent in the flesh are integral
to his saving work. As Bernard writes in his third sermon for the Circumcision, “The
whole is given to me, all is poured out for my benefit.” 347 Again, in his second sermon
for Pentecost, the abbot has Christ proclaim:
I give you not only my conception, but also my life, in each of its
stages; I give you my infancy, my boyhood, my adolescence, and
my youth, together with my death, my resurrection, my ascension,
and my sending of the Spirit. I will do this so that my conception
may cleanse yours, my life may instruct yours, my death may
destroy yours, my resurrection may precede yours, my ascension
may prepare yours, and, finally, that the Spirit may strengthen you
in your weakness. 348
Bernard’s two-fold reference to Christ’s sending of the Spirit underscores an aspect of
Bernard’s soteriology that is not entirely evident in McGinn’s article: the mystery of
Christ’s Ascension into glory is not complete without his gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. It
is true, as McGinn notes, that, for Bernard, the feast of the Ascension is the
“consummation and fulfillment of all the other feasts, the happy conclusion to the entire
journey of the Son of God.” 349 Yet, it is equally true, for Bernard, that the mystery of
347 3 Circ 4 (IV, 284): “Totus siquidem mihi datus, et totus in meos usus expensus est.” All
translations of Bernard’s liturgical sermons are my own, unless otherwise indicated. The reader should,
however, consult the following translations from which I have benefited: Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons
for the Advent and Christmas Season, trans. Irene Edmonds, Wendy Mary Beckett, and Conrad Greenia,
ed. John Leinenweber, Cistercian Fathers 51 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2007); Bernard of
Clairvaux, Sermons for the Summer Season: Liturgical Sermons from Rogationtide and Pentecost, trans.
Beverly Mayne Kinzel and James Jarzembowski, Cistercian Fathers 53 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian
Publications, 1991).
348 2 Pent 5 (V, 168): “, ait,