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

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human creatures to their originally intended participation in his own divine life and blessedness, he must instruct their proud and willful hearts in the opposed and salutary ways of humility and charity. Third, supposing God were indeed able to recall his fallen creatures to their true end, the loving contemplation of himself, and to show them the way to this end, the way of humility and love, fallen human beings would still remain voluntarily enslaved to sin and subject to death and therefore still incapable of themselves of embracing the way of humility and charity to the promise of eternal life. Consequently, if God’s saving plan is to be accomplished, he must not only reveal to his creatures their goal and their way to that goal, but also free them from their slavery to sin and infuse into their hearts his gifts of grace, humility, and charity. In his brief narration of the Word’s Incarnation in SC 35, Bernard appears explicitly concerned to address the first of these three needs of fallen humanity, but implicitly speaks to the second and third as well. In their fall, he suggests, human beings have “exchanged the glory of God for the likeness of an ox that eats grass” (Ps 105:20). By this tristis et lacrimis mutatio, they have exchanged the desire for God for the desire for the “grass” of sensible, created realities. Consequently, the Word, by his own gracious mutatio, has “become like grass,” or taken flesh, that they might be drawn to and feed on his sacred humanity. Bernard writes: So the bread of angels has become like grass laid in a manger, set before us as beasts. Indeed the Word was made flesh (Jn 1:14); and, according to the Prophet, all flesh is as grass (Is 40:6). Yet, this grass does not wither, nor does its bloom fade, for the Spirit of the Lord has rested upon him. For, as the Prophet also says, grass withers and its bloom fades, but the Word of the Lord remains forever (Is 40:8). If, therefore, the Word is grass, and the Word 67
emains forever, this grass too remains forever. How else could it bring eternal life, if it did not remain forever? 110 Since fallen human beings now sense and desire only what is fleshly, the Word has taken flesh, even the tender and sweet flesh of an infant lying in a manger, that he might lure the hearts of fallen human beings away from the sensible, fleshly goods they crave to his own sweet and sensible humanity. His purpose, however, in winning their amor carnalis is not that they might remain in this condition, but that they might be drawn to the still sweeter taste of his divinity by an amor spiritualis. Christ accomplishes this reeducation of the heart by the two principal stages of his incarnate life: by the descent of his Incarnation, Nativity, and Passion, he attracts fallen hearts to his flesh; by his Resurrection and Ascension in glorified flesh, together with the gift of his Spirit at Pentecost, he draws hearts in love with his flesh to the love of his divinity present within. 111 110 SC 35.4 (I, 251-252): “Inde est quod panis angelorum factus est fenum positum in praesepio, appositum nobis tamquam iumentis. VERBUM quippe CARO FACTUM EST; et iuxta Prophetam: OMNIS CARO FENUM. At fenum istud minime desiccatum est, nec ex eo cecidit flos, quia requievit super eum Spiritus Domini. FENUM, inquit, EXSICCATUM EST, ET CECIDIT FLOS; VERBUM AUTEM DOMINI MANET IN AETERNUM. Ergo si fenum Verbum, et Verbum manet in aeternum, fenum quoque maneat necesse est in aeternum Alioquin quomodo vitam praebet aeternam, si ipsum minime manet in aeternum? 111 Bernard’s doctrine of the amor carnalis Christi is, of course, indebted to Augustine’s own teaching concerning Christ as the Mediator between God and human beings. See, for example, Confessions VII.8.24-20.26. Bernard develops this theme of the amor carnalis Christi at greater length in Dil 7-13, Div 101, 3 Asc, 6 Asc, and SC 20. For studies of this theme, see J.-M. Déchanet, “La christologie de saint Bernard,” Saint Bernard Théologien, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 9 (1953): 78-91; Roch Kereszty, “Relationship between Anthropology and Christology. St. Bernard, a Teacher for Our Age,” 283-287; Marsha Dutton, “Intimacy and Imitation: The Humanity of Christ in Cistercian Spirituality,” in Erudition at God’s Service: Studies in Medieval Cistercian History XI, ed. John R. Sommerfeldt (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 33-69; Marsha Dutton, “The Face and Feet of God: The Humanity of Christ in Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx,” in Bernardus Magister: Papers Presented at the Nonacentenary of the Birth of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Kalamazoo, Michigan, ed. John R. Sommerfeldt (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications and Cîteaux: Commentarii Cisterciensis, 1992), 202-223. 68
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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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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 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: edemptive work is suitably adapted
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
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Page 125 and 126: 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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