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

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Should the soul somehow lose this created likeness, it would no longer be capable of even this partial vision on account of its lost likeness to the Word. Yet, if the Word who first created the soul with a certain likeness to himself were to restore that lost likeness, the soul would regain its partial vision of its Creator. If, in turn, the Word were to raise the soul beyond its created condition to perfect likeness to himself, this blessed soul would be capable of gazing on the Word as he is, in all his splendor and brightness. In her present exile, then, the Bride who longs to see her Bridegroom as he is must first be enlightened by the Sun of Justice that she might grow ever more like him in his brightness according to Paul’s words, “We with unveiled face, gazing on the glory of God are transformed into that same image, from brightness to brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). The Bride must remember, however, that this process of illumination and likening to the Word is only accomplished gradually. She must not rashly aspire to the beatific vision of her Bridegroom before she is perfectly conformed to him, but humbly submit herself to the transforming missions of the Word and his Spirit, who will liken her to her Incarnate Bridegroom’s humility and charity respectively. The Bride’s journey of likeness and vision begins in this life, but reaches its perfection only in the next when she will be perfectly likened to her Spouse and at last behold him face to face. Bernard writes: “The one who grows brighter draws nearer, but to be perfectly bright is to have arrived. For those who have arrived in his presence, to see him as he is is nothing other than to be as he is and not to be put to shame by any unlikeness. But this, as I have said, is for the next life.” 89 89 SC 31.3 (I, 221): “Qui itaque clarior, ille propinquior; esse autem clarissimum, pervenisse est. Porro iam praesentibus non aliud est videre sicuti est, quam esse sicuti est, et aliqua dissimilitudine non confundi Sed id tunc, ut dixi.” 51
In the interim or “meanwhile” of this present life, the Bride who is being likened to her Bridegroom’s humility and charity must be content to see him in a mirror dimly and not yet face to face (1 Cor 13:12). If she is in glory to see her Beloved as he is, in his eternal and divine form, the forma Dei, she must now contemplate him in his temporal and incarnate form, in the forma servi, in the mysteries of his Nativity and ministry, his Passion and death, his Resurrection and Ascension into glory, and his sending of the Spirit at Pentecost. The flesh of the Savior now veils and tempers the inaccessible brightness of his heavenly glory, affording the Bride a vision suited to her earthly condition. Yet, the Savior’s flesh is also life-giving, for as the Bride feeds on the Eucharistic flesh and blood of her Crucified Bridegroom, she is conformed to the pattern of his Paschal Mystery and infused with the very humility and charity he both models and effects by his Cross. Consuming the Paschal Lamb, she is progressively likened to him and so gradually prepared to see him as he is and to glory in the splendor of his radiant countenance. Like Moses, she must see God’s back before she can see him face to face. Like James and John, she must drink the chalice of his Passion before she can share his eternal life in his heavenly kingdom. Bernard’s explication of the Bride’s journey to the beatific vision by her growing likeness to her Bridegroom allows him, in the second half his inclusio, to explain the meaning of her Bridegroom’s rebuke. When with the harsh words of a master he says “If you do not know yourself, most beautiful among women, go forth,” he rebukes not her desire for the beatific vision, but her presumption in judging herself already worthy to see him as he is. Speaking in the excess of her longing, the Bride has neglected that she still remains on her earthly pilgrimage and still possesses an earthly body and is therefore as 52
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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
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 and 58: of God, they will grow ever more un
Page 59: and love as she is loved, and the B
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
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eturn to his suffering brothers and
Page 115 and 116:
much more should the monk not exalt
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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
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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
Page 129 and 130:
will contrary to both the law of Go
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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
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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
Page 191 and 192:
In this vision, reason is permitted
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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
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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
Page 245 and 246:
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
Page 251 and 252:
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
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
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I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
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------. 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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