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

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fashioning for himself a god without justice, he imagines himself exempt from divine judgment and therefore carelessly indulges the whims of his own will. In one case, ignorance of God breeds despair; in the other, the brazen assertion of self-will; and in both, contempt of the truly just and merciful God who wills to save his fallen creatures from their sin through their conformity to his own divine will. Through ignorance of himself and God, then, the monk recapitulates Adam’s way of pride and self-will, thereby grows unlike the humble and loving Christ, and so descends with Adam into that bestial existence that leads only to misery, despair, and condemnation. If, therefore, the monk is to be converted to Christ, likened to his humility and love, and thereby begin his ascent with Christ to the beatific vision, he will do so by discovering the truth about himself and God. As the abbot remarks in his fifth sermon De diversis, life in Christ, the properly spiritual life opposed to the bestial life of the flesh, depends on this two-fold knowledge: The sum total of our spiritual life consists in these two things: when we consider ourselves we are troubled and saddened to our salvation, but when we consider God we are revivified and consoled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. From the knowledge of ourselves we conceive fear and humility, but from the knowledge of God hope and love. 123 Granted their indispensible centrality to the spiritual life, the knowledge of oneself and God must, for Bernard, be sought before all other forms of knowledge. This does not mean that these other forms of learning should be disparaged, however. Bernard is well aware of that the study of the liberal arts, for example, confers many benefits on the 123 Div 5.5 (VI-I, 104): “In his enim duobus tota spiritualis conversationis summa versatur, ut in nostra consideratione turbemur et contristemur ad salutem, in divina respiremus et de gaudio Spiritus Sancti habeamus consolationem; et hinc timorem et humilitatem, inde vero spem concipiamus et caritatem.” See Farkasfalvy, “Bernard’s Concept of the Spiritual Life,” 3-14. 77
Church, enabling scholars to instruct the simple in the doctrine of the faith and to refute the faith’s more subtle opponents. The abbot’s concern is not with the nature of human knowledge as such, but with the order, manner, and ends of study. Without the knowledge of oneself and God, the study of all other forms of knowledge, even the study of theology itself, is, at best, irrelevant to one’s own salvation or, at worst, an inducement to idle curiosity, vainglory, and pride. 124 For Bernard, it was with reference to this theological knowledge sought apart from humble self-knowledge that Paul wrote, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). Beyond the knowledge that brings pride, there is another, more fundamental and truly edifying knowledge, the knowledge that makes one weep over his or her fallen misery and cry out to God for his liberating mercy. Bernard writes: You see that there are different kinds of knowledge, since one puffs us up while the other makes us weep. I would like to know which of these seems to you more useful or necessary for your salvation, the knowledge that inflates or the knowledge that saddens? I have no doubt you will prefer the latter, for pride but simulates health while sadness seeks it. Those who seek salvation draw close to it, for those who ask will receive. As Paul tells us, God heals the brokenhearted and detests the proud, for “he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jm 4:6). 125 124 On this point, see Sommerfeldt, Bernard of Clairvaux On the Life of the Mind, 90-102. Given that this sermon, and the sermon set SC 34-38, was composed between 1139 and 1145, in the very midst of Bernard’s campaign against Abelard, it seems very likely that he has the Parisian teacher here in mind. On the Bernard-Abelard affair, see Sommerfeldt, Bernard of Clairvaux on the Life of the Mind, 120-135. 125 SC 36.2 (II, 5-6): “Vides quia differentia est scientiarum, quando alia inflans, alia contristans est. Tibi vero velim scire quaenam harum tibi videatur utilior seu necessarior ad salutem: illa ne quae tumet, an quae dolet? Sed non dubito quin dolentem tumenti praeferas: quia sanitatem, quam tumor simulat, dolor postulat. Qui autem postulat, propinquat saluti: quoniam QUI PETIT ACCIPIT Denique qui sanat contritos corde, exsecratur inflatos, dicente Paulo quia DEUS SUPERBIS RESISTIT, HUMILIBUS AUTEM DAT GRATIAM.” 78
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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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ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
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foundations of man’s return to Go
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the descent of humility begins the
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saving work of Jesus Christ in the
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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 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: humbles himself will be exalted”
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
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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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