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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

new way, not now as a self-defaced image of God, but as an image being progressively likened to Christ. The soul now knows itself to be assuming gradually the contours of Christ’s own Bride, radiant with her Bridegroom’s own beauty. Though this soul-as- Bride knows that her beauty remains imperfect in this life, her new self-knowledge inspires her audacious confidence that when her beauty is made perfect in glory, she will at last forget herself entirely and pass over into her Bridegroom for all eternity. Since Bernard wrote no work specifically devoted to the soul’s progress through these diverse stages of self-awareness, from the self-deception intrinsic to pride to the soul’s newfound self-awareness as Christ’s Bride, we will have draw on several of his most significant works to compose a comprehensive account of his teaching on this subject. This will be our task in the chapters which follow. In the present chapter, however, our aim will be to provide a kind of “overture” to Bernard’s comprehensive teaching on self-knowledge, in which we will identify the major themes he elsewhere develops in considerably greater detail. To compose this overture, we will in this chapter undertake a close study of Bernard’s celebrated meditations on self-knowledge and self- ignorance in sermons thirty-four to thirty-eight of his Sermones super Cantica canticorum. 77 In this sermon set, composed sometime between 1139 and 1143, the abbot comments on the Bridegroom’s words to his Bride in Song of Songs 1:7: “If you do not know yourself, most beautiful among women, go forth, and follow after the flocks of your companions, and feed your kids beside the shepherd’s tents.” In the tradition of 77 On the composition and dating of Bernard’s Sermones super Cantica canticorum, see Jean Leclercq, “The Making of a Masterpiece,” trans. Kathleen Waters, in Bernard of Clairvaux: On the Song of Songs IV, trans. Irene Edmonds, Cistercian Fathers 40 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1980), ix-xxiv. 45
Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere associates this verse with the Delphic maxim scito teipsum or “know thyself” and treats the Bridegroom’s words as a rebuke directed to his Bride for her want of self-knowledge. 78 These sermons have often been cited or alluded to by scholars as evidence of the importance Bernard attaches to humbling self-knowledge in the foundational stages of the spiritual life and they provide ample witness to this aspect of the Cistercian’s teaching. 79 For example, in a celebrated passage from Sermon 36, the central of these five sermons, Bernard writes: I wish, therefore, before all else, that the soul should know itself, for this is what both usefulness and order require. Order since what we are is our first concern, and usefulness because such knowledge does not puff us up, but humbles us, and is a certain foundation on which to build. For unless it is founded on the firm foundation of humility, the spiritual building cannot stand. 80 Read in isolation from the broader context of this sermon set as a whole, this and other, similar passages appear to confirm the scholarly finding that, for Bernard, self-knowledge means the soul’s humbling recognition of its disfigurement, and that such self-knowledge is significant to Bernard insofar as it moves the soul to humility and conversion, the 78 On Origen’s interpretation of this verse, see Courcelle, Connais-toi toi-même: de Socrate à saint Bernard, 97-100. On Bernard’s knowledge and use of Origen’s commentary on the Canticle, see Michael Casey, Athirst for God: Spiritual Desire in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, 41-46. 79 See for example Dumont, Pathway of Peace: Cistercian Wisdom According to Saint Bernard, 46-49; Casey, Athirst for God: Spiritual Desire in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, 153-158. 80 SC 36.5 (II, 6-7): “Volo proinde animam primo omnium scire seipsam, quod id postulet ratio et utilitatis, et ordinis. Et ordinis quidem, quoniam quod nos sumus primum est nobis; utilitatis vero, quia talis scientia non inflat, sed humiliat, et est quaedam praeparatio ad aedificandum Nisi enim super humilitatis stabile fundamentum, spirituale aedificium stare minime potest.” All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. The reader should, however, consult the translation by Kilian Walsh, from which we have benefited. See Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Songs II, trans. Kilian Walsh, Cistercian Fathers 7 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1979), 160-191. 46
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 and 52: CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S
Page 53: Prior to its first conversion, Bern
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
Page 147 and 148:
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
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?