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

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God, and so inspires in these humbled souls a grateful love of their Redeemer. Finally, by the mysteries of his ascent, his Resurrection and Ascension, the glorified Christ elevates and transforms this incipient carnal love into the strong, spiritual love proper to Christ’s mature disciples. In light of these parallels between Bernard’s accounts of the soul’s ascent to self-knowledge and the saving work of the Incarnate Word in his descent and ascent, we might be led to wonder whether in his meditations on Pentecost, the last of Christ’s mysteries, Bernard associates Christ’s gift of the Spirit with the soul’s joyous rediscovery of itself as one being refashioned in the lost divine likeness. And this is, in fact, precisely what Bernard suggests in his sermons for the Feast of Pentecost. As we noted above, Bernard believes that the ascended Christ’s gift of the Spirit at Pentecost constitutes the culmination of the saving mysteries of his Incarnate life. So it is in his second sermon for the feast of Pentecost that Bernard, in a passage already cited above, 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.” 385 By his life, Bernard continues, Christ has modeled for us the way by which we may ascend to God: “In my life, you will know your way, so that just as I have held steadfastly to the paths of poverty and obedience, humility and patience, charity and mercy, so you also must follow in my footsteps.” 386 By his death, moreover, Christ has 385 2 Pent 5 (V, 168): “, ait,
delivered us from sin and enabled us to participate in his own humility and love as we strive to follow in his footsteps: “In my death, I have given you my own righteousness, shattering the yoke of your captivity.” 387 Finally, by his Resurrection and Ascension, Christ has directed our faith and love to their proper destination, his glorified presence with the Father in heaven: “Once I have done all these things, I will return to the house from which I have come, and turn my face to those sheep who have remained upon the mountains, whom I once left for your sake, that I might not so much lead you, as carry you back.” 388 Though he has ascended to his Father’s house, Christ does not leave his disciples alone and unconsoled on their journey to him. On the contrary, to those of his faithful who have participated in the fruits of his Passion and begun to follow his own way of humility and love towards his presence in glory, Christ has given the gift of his own Spirit: “And that you might not complain or sorrow in my absence, I will send you the Spirit, the Paraclete, who will give you the pledge of salvation, strength of life, and the light of knowledge.” 389 Bernard then has Christ explain in turn the fruit of the Spirit’s threefold gift. First, the Spirit gives Christ’s disciples the pignus salutis, or pledge of salvation, that “the Spirit might bear witness with your spirit that you are a son of God” (cf. Rom 8:15). By this pledge, the Spirit “shows and impresses upon your heart most tuae.” 387 2 Pent 5 (V, 168): “In morte autem mea dabo tibi iustitiam meam, dirumpens iugum captivitatis 388 2 Pent 5 (V, 168): “His autem completis, revertar in domum meam unde exivi, et ovibus illis, quae in montibus remanserant, quas et propter te reliqueram, ut te non ducerem, sed reportarem, reddam faciem meam.” 389 2 Pent 6 (V, 168): “Et ne de absentia mea vel murmures, vel contristeris, mittam tibi Spiritum Paraclitum, qui tibi donet pignus salutis, robur vitae, scientiae lumen.” 246
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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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the Truth in his own nature? Matter
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arguing from both allusions in text
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upon the “stage” of the soul an
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(Is 46:8). For Bernard, this first
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desperate need for the healing grac
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consolations afforded it by the lif
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thoroughly diseased: reason now see
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Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
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In this vision, reason is permitted
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conscience she enjoys through the m
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Word of God, “that living and eff
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knowledge and contempt of himself,
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The Self-Awareness of the Bride in
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When the brightness of this beauty
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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
Page 221 and 222: descended and ascended and showed u
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Page 227 and 228: excursus has been labeled a “digr
Page 229 and 230: “learned” (didicit) is being pr
Page 231 and 232: To resolve this question, Bernard r
Page 233 and 234: You see, therefore, that Christ is
Page 235 and 236: to the Spirit, by contemplation in
Page 237 and 238: worse, misguided view of the abbot
Page 239 and 240: Christ’s Ascension culminates in
Page 241 and 242: conformed to him. Then, through the
Page 243 and 244: Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
Page 245 and 246: The theme of Word’s example of vo
Page 247 and 248: equally deadly, extreme of despair.
Page 249 and 250: and humbled by God, so that there w
Page 251 and 252: as essential elements of the Word I
Page 253: led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
Page 257 and 258: miseria and fires it with the confi
Page 259 and 260: death to bring about a real, inward
Page 261 and 262: sins,” “justification,” and
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
Page 271 and 272: gradually assuming the figure of Ch
Page 273 and 274: to judge themselves in Truth, and s
Page 275 and 276: ejoice with those who rejoice and w
Page 277 and 278: love of himself in the glory of div
Page 279 and 280: I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
Page 281 and 282: ------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
Page 283 and 284: Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
Page 285 and 286: ------. “Le premier traité authe
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