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

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ack to the way by which they might ascend to this great grace,” namely the way of conformity to his Paschal Mystery by drinking the chalice he would drink and by being baptized with his own baptism. 84 Here too, Bernard concludes, the Bride has asked her Bridegroom for a “great grace,” but she is similarly “rebuked with a reply that that is truly harsh, but also instructive and kind.” 85 What is this great grace the Bride has so boldly sought from her Beloved? In the preceding verse of the Song, Bernard notes, the Bride has asked her Bridegroom, “Show me, you whom my soul loves, where you feed your flocks, where you lie down at noon” (Sg 1:6). In his commentary on this verse in SC 31, Bernard has explained that, by this request, the Bride, though still on her earthly pilgrimage, has asked her Bridegroom to let her see him “as he is” (sicuti est), in his uncreated, eternal, and immutable form, as he is now seen and contemplated by the blessed angels in glory. 86 The Bride longs for this beatific vision of the Word-Bridegroom as the consummation of all her loving desire for her Spouse, for she knows that when she sees him as he is, “there will be between them chaste and consummated love, full recognition, manifest vision, indivisible unity, steadfast union, and perfect likeness.” 87 Then, at last, she “will know as she is known, 84 SC 34.1 (II, 9-10): “Filii quoque Zebedaei in simplicitate cordis sui ambulantes, magnum aliquid et ipsi ausi sunt, sed ad gradum nihilominus sunt redacti, per quem fuerat ascendendum.” 85 SC 34.1 (II, 10): “Ita et modo sponsa, quoniam rem grandem postulare videtur, reprimitur sane austeriori responsione, sed plane utili et fideli.” 86 SC 31.1 (II, 219-220). 87 SC 82.8 (II, 297): “Siquidem veniente quod perfectum est, evacuabitur quod ex parte est; erit que ad alterutrum casta et consummata dilectio, agnitio plena, visio manifesta, coniunctio firma, societas individua, similitudo perfecta.” 49
and love as she is loved, and the Bridegroom will rejoice over his Bride, knowing and known, loving and loved.” 88 Yet this beatific vision, Bernard continues, this experience of reciprocal knowledge and love between Bridegroom and Bride, is not for the present life, but is reserved to the next. In the words of the First Letter of John, “We know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). As long as the Bride remains on her earthly pilgrimage, as long as she continues in her mortal and not yet glorified body, she enjoys only a partial likeness to her Bridegroom and therefore enjoys only a partial vision of him according to the measure of her humility and love. Bernard illustrates this correlation of likeness and vision through an analogy to physical sight. The human eye cannot gaze directly on the sun as it is, but only as it illumines visible objects such as the air, a mountain, or a wall. The eye alone among all the parts of the human body is capable of this partial vision of the sun on account of its natural brightness and clarity, its own partial likeness to the sun. Should the eye grow clouded and thereby lose its natural brightness and clarity, it would no longer be capable of even this partial vision of the sun on account of its lost likeness to it. Yet, if the eye were somehow raised above its natural condition and made perfectly like the sun in brightness and clarity, it would be capable of gazing on the sun as it is owing to this perfect likeness. By analogy, the abbot argues, the human soul has been created with a certain likeness to its Creator and is thereby capable of a certain partial vision of the Word. 88 SC 82.8 (II, 298: “Tunc cognoscet anima sicut cognita est; tunc amabit sicut amata est; et gaudebit sponsus super sponsam, cognoscens et cognitus, diligens et dilectus.” 50
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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
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 and 54: Prior to its first conversion, Bern
Page 55 and 56: Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere
Page 57: of God, they will grow ever more un
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
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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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For Bernard, then, the soul that ha
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figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
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Conclusion Having considered three
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self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
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CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE M
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Christ’s incarnate, crucified, an
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indeed to the entirety of his theol
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significant individual expressions
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The foregoing elements of Bernard
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descended and ascended and showed u
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self, neighbor, and God. He has sho
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own, and from your own experience l
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excursus has been labeled a “digr
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“learned” (didicit) is being pr
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To resolve this question, Bernard r
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You see, therefore, that Christ is
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to the Spirit, by contemplation in
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worse, misguided view of the abbot
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Christ’s Ascension culminates in
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conformed to him. Then, through the
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Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
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The theme of Word’s example of vo
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equally deadly, extreme of despair.
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and humbled by God, so that there w
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as essential elements of the Word I
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led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
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delivered us from sin and enabled u
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miseria and fires it with the confi
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death to bring about a real, inward
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sins,” “justification,” and
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these life-giving virtues, we must
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precisely through, a careful approp
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perhaps she means, “My Beloved in
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To such a soul, the abbot continues
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gradually assuming the figure of Ch
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to judge themselves in Truth, and s
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ejoice with those who rejoice and w
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love of himself in the glory of div
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I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
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------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
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Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
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------. “Le premier traité authe
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