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

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writings many and varied schematizations of the soul’s journey to God by its progressive restoration in the lost divine likeness, he consistently maintains that the soul’s return to its Creator, however it may be charted, originates in this humbling but salutary self- awareness. Thus in his earliest spiritual treatise, On the Steps of Humility and Pride (1125), Bernard describes the fallen soul’s recognition of its own miserable plight as the “first step of Truth,” the first and indispensible rung in the three-step ladder of the soul’s ascent to Truth himself. And again, at the very end of his life, in his On Consideration (1151), Bernard can be found once more extolling the virtues of this self-knowledge, exhorting his former novice, pope Eugene III, “[L]et your consideration begin with yourself and end with yourself. Wherever it wanders, call it back to yourself with the fruit of your salvation. You must be first and last in your own consideration.” 76 Certainly, then, previous scholarship has been right in underscoring Bernard’s insistence that the soul’s self-knowledge, understood as its self-recognition as a disfigured image of God, is indispensible for conversion and the origin of the soul’s journey to God. Yet, as we will argue in this dissertation, a certain scholarly preoccupation with this aspect of the abbot’s thought has unfortunately obscured the full scope of Bernard’s teaching on self-knowledge and the spiritual life. Beyond his reflections on the soul’s self-knowledge in the moment of its first conversion, Bernard has, in fact, carefully thought through the question of the soul’s self-awareness in each of the various phases of the soul’s journey to God. 76 Csi 2.6 (III, 414): “A te proinde incipiat tua consideratio; non solum autem, et in te finiatur. Quocumque evagetur, ad te revocaveris eam cum salutis fructu. Tu primus tibi, tu ultimus.” 43
Prior to its first conversion, Bernard believes, the soul does possess a certain self- knowledge, but only a false self-knowledge, or better a self-deception, born of pride. Inflated with conceit, this soul, which is in truth so unlike God, deceives itself into believing that it is not, in fact, a disfigured image of God, but somehow like him, and therefore not in need of his healing grace. This self-deception, which, as we will see, assumes different forms according to the measure of the soul’s pride, effectively blinds the soul to the sad truth of its sinful self-disfigurement and so prevents the soul from seeking the divine healing it so desperately requires. Once we understand Bernard’s teaching on this self-deception and its persuasive power, we will better able to see precisely why he insists so frequently and forcefully on the need for that humbling self- knowledge which previous scholarship has found so essential to his doctrine. For if, as he believes, the proud soul suffers not simply from self-ignorance, but also from self- deception, it will only be through an honest, unflinching self-examination and self- judgment that the soul will be able to expose its prior self-delusions as false and face the true, and painful, reality of its own self-disfigurement. Yet, the humbling self-knowledge the soul acquires in this painful self-judgment is far from Bernard’s final word on the matter of the soul’s self-knowledge. For just as this humbling self-awareness unmasks the soul’s former self-deception, it also moves the soul to turn to God, to seek his mercy, forgiveness, and healing for its disfigurement. As God greets this humble soul with the mercy it seeks, he begins to refashion it in the lost divine likeness, re-creating it in the image of the Incarnate Word and suffusing it with that beauty the Word-made-flesh models in the mysteries of his incarnate life. As the soul experiences this transforming grace of God within itself, it begins to know itself in a 44
Page 1 and 2: MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 3 and 4: MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 5 and 6: To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, S
Page 7 and 8: Christ as the Model of Self-Knowled
Page 9 and 10: esearch: John Cavadini, Cyril O’R
Page 11 and 12: self-knowledge is the indispensible
Page 13 and 14: For Bernard, then, humble self-know
Page 15 and 16: likeness of charity. Within the Cis
Page 17 and 18: When Gilson asserted that by self-k
Page 19 and 20: Bernard, Sommerfeldt continues, hum
Page 21 and 22: a “false image” of himself. 26
Page 23 and 24: some newfound and joyous moment of
Page 25 and 26: ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
Page 27 and 28: foundations of man’s return to Go
Page 29 and 30: the descent of humility begins the
Page 31 and 32: saving work of Jesus Christ in the
Page 33 and 34: the humility, obedience, and love C
Page 35 and 36: Of particular importance to Bernard
Page 37 and 38: and second, “what it is like in i
Page 39 and 40: In his ground-breaking study of med
Page 41 and 42: direct links between the two. 52 It
Page 43 and 44: swells in one’s heart that it mov
Page 45 and 46: pride as “the desire for a perver
Page 47 and 48: The knowledge of self and God in th
Page 49 and 50: mercy until you renew all that is i
Page 51: CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S
Page 55 and 56: Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere
Page 57 and 58: of God, they will grow ever more un
Page 59 and 60: and love as she is loved, and the B
Page 61 and 62: In the interim or “meanwhile” o
Page 63 and 64: Why do you judge yourself worthy to
Page 65 and 66: For Bernard, the lesson to be drawn
Page 67 and 68: warning and why should it compel he
Page 69 and 70: worldly things her flesh and senses
Page 71 and 72: aspired to seize a kind of parody o
Page 73 and 74: thousands of evils upon our entire
Page 75 and 76: edemptive work is suitably adapted
Page 77 and 78: emains forever, this grass too rema
Page 79 and 80: graciously condescending to assume
Page 81 and 82: Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
Page 83 and 84: of self-knowledge enabled self-dece
Page 85 and 86: humbles himself will be exalted”
Page 87 and 88: Church, enabling scholars to instru
Page 89 and 90: Through this unflinching self-exami
Page 91 and 92: soon tempers my bitter vision of my
Page 93 and 94: edeem him, sanctify him, and offer
Page 95 and 96: As observed above, in the second ha
Page 97 and 98: modeled and effected by the Word-ma
Page 99 and 100: Ignorance of self breeds pride when
Page 101 and 102: consideration of others and their a
Page 103 and 104:
consideration of his treatise as a
Page 105 and 106:
symmetry between these two parts an
Page 107 and 108:
Though this discrepancy at first ap
Page 109 and 110:
self, God, and neighbor. Since it i
Page 111 and 112:
estored in this divine likeness as
Page 113 and 114:
eturn to his suffering brothers and
Page 115 and 116:
much more should the monk not exalt
Page 117 and 118:
for your brother’s misery and not
Page 119 and 120:
sinful weakness and nothing of thei
Page 121 and 122:
Finally, we should note that Bernar
Page 123 and 124:
journey to which the monk will comm
Page 125 and 126:
and judge others or to see how they
Page 127 and 128:
condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
Page 129 and 130:
will contrary to both the law of Go
Page 131 and 132:
in him by her obedience to his will
Page 133 and 134:
contempt not only for herself and h
Page 135 and 136:
his rule over the reprobate he woul
Page 137 and 138:
in misery rather than to be subject
Page 139 and 140:
descending these early steps of pri
Page 141 and 142:
pleases them and avoid what makes t
Page 143 and 144:
knows.” 201 Should the topic of c
Page 145 and 146:
Here abbot Bernard figures the prou
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ut believe in his inmost heart that
Page 149 and 150:
Asserting Self-Will Against Superio
Page 151 and 152:
As so often in his narrative of the
Page 153 and 154:
who he is, everyone judges him, and
Page 155 and 156:
monk’s descent into this deepest
Page 157 and 158:
God in heaven. He will acknowledge
Page 159 and 160:
Consumed by this self-centered love
Page 161 and 162:
their hearts. Hence Bernard’s fre
Page 163 and 164:
done…by whoever would walk in the
Page 165 and 166:
In recognizing the two distinct mom
Page 167 and 168:
experience, lamenting how he has ma
Page 169 and 170:
inward movement in the soul. In any
Page 171 and 172:
share with them in that divine merc
Page 173 and 174:
Operating inwardly within this judg
Page 175 and 176:
the Truth in his own nature? Matter
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
Page 183 and 184:
desperate need for the healing grac
Page 185 and 186:
consolations afforded it by the lif
Page 187 and 188:
thoroughly diseased: reason now see
Page 189 and 190:
Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
Page 191 and 192:
In this vision, reason is permitted
Page 193 and 194:
conscience she enjoys through the m
Page 195 and 196:
Word of God, “that living and eff
Page 197 and 198:
knowledge and contempt of himself,
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
Page 209 and 210:
self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
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
Page 223 and 224:
self, neighbor, and God. He has sho
Page 225 and 226:
own, and from your own experience l
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 and 254:
led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
Page 255 and 256:
delivered us from sin and enabled u
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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