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

which overcomes evil with good (Rom 12:21), conquering sin and converting the hearts
of sinners to repentance, gratitude, and love. 374
If they are to share in these fruits of Christ’s Passion, Bernard insists, Christ’s
faithful must not simply contemplate the virtues he displays in his cross, but also
participate in and imitate them by being gradually conformed to the figure of the
Crucified. They must “suffer together with the suffering Christ” 375 by voluntarily
renouncing their pride to imitate his humility, and by voluntarily forsaking their self-will
to imitate his superabundant love for both God and their fellow human beings. As they
are conformed to the humility and charity Christ models in his Passion, Bernard explains,
they will not simply look upon the Crucified, but embrace him: “The Lord Jesus has
embraced us by taking up our pain and sorrow; let us likewise embrace him with the arms
of his own righteousness.” 376 Then they will be able to say with the Bride of the Canticle,
“I have held him, and I will not let him go” (Sg 3:4). And, assuming more and more the
figure of Christ’s Bride by their progressive conformity to their Crucified Bridegroom,
they may dare to aspire to the mystical kiss of contemplation, saying with her, “Let him
kiss me with the kiss of his mouth” (Sg 1:1).
The Mysteries of Christ’s Ascent and the Growth of Love
Though, as we have just seen, Bernard ascribes a special salvific efficacy to the
mystery of Christ’s Passion, the abbot also regards Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension
374 See 4 HM 9 (V, 62-63).
375 4 HM 1 (V, 56): “Christo patienti quodam modo compati.”
376 4 HM 14 (V, 56): “Amplexatus est nos Dominus Iesus per laborem et dolorem nostrum;
adhaereamus nos quoque ei vicariis quibusdam amplexibus per iustitiam, et iustitiam suam.”
241