Sermon 34 on the Song of Songs — Bernard of Clairvaux
In Which Humility and Patience Are Treated
1. "If you do not know yourself, O beautiful one among women, go forth, and go after the flocks of your companions, and pasture your kids beside the tents of the shepherds" (Song 1:7). Once holy Moses, because he presumed much upon the grace and familiarity which he had found with God, aspired to a certain great vision, so that he said to God: "If I have found grace in your eyes, show me yourself." But he received in place of it a vision far inferior, from which nevertheless he might at some time arrive at the very one he desired (Ex 33:13-23). The sons of Zebedee also, walking in the simplicity of their heart, dared something great themselves, but were likewise brought back to the step by which one must ascend (Mt 20:21-23). So too now the bride, since she seems to ask for a great thing, is indeed checked by a rather severe response, but one plainly useful and faithful. For it is necessary that one striving toward higher things think humbly of himself, lest, while he is raised above himself, he fall from himself, unless he has been firmly established in himself through true humility. And because the greatest things are by no means obtained except by the merit of humility, therefore he who is to be advanced is humbled by correction, and by humility he merits. You therefore, when you see yourself humbled, take this as a sign entirely for the good, as an indication that grace is drawing near. For as the heart is exalted before a fall (Prov 16:18), so it is humbled before exaltation. Indeed you read both in Scripture, namely that God both resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6). Did he not, after all, when he judged that his servant Job, after his remarkable triumph and so great and so proven a patience, should be rewarded with a generous blessing, first take care to humble him in many and searching interrogations, and so prepare the way for the blessing? (Job 38ff.)
2. But it is a small thing if, when God humbles us through himself, we then accept it willingly, unless when he does this also through another, we are similarly wise. Wherefore receive a wonderful lesson of this matter from holy David. Once he was cursed even by a servant; but he did not feel the heaped-up injury, because he foresaw the grace. "What have I to do with you, sons of Sarvia?" he said (2 Sam 16:10). O truly a man after God's own heart, who thought he should be angry with the one avenging him rather than with the one reproaching him! Whence also with a clear conscience he spoke: "If I have repaid those who rendered evil to me, let me rightly fall empty before my enemies" (Ps 7:4). He therefore forbade the restraining of the cursing reviler, reckoning the curses as gain. And he adds: "The Lord sent him to curse David" (2 Sam 16:10). Utterly after God's heart, he who drew his judgment from the heart of God. The cursing tongue raged, and he was attending to what God was doing in secret. The voice of the one cursing was in his ears, and his mind inclined itself to blessing. Was God in the mouth of the blasphemer? By no means! But he used him for humbling David. Nor was this hidden from the Prophet; for God had manifested to him the uncertain and hidden things of his wisdom (Ps 50:8), and therefore he says: "It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your statutes" (Ps 118:71).
3. You see that humility justifies us? I said humility, and not humiliation. How many are humiliated who are not humble? Some are humiliated with resentment, others patiently, others even gladly. The first are guilty, the next are innocent, the last are just. Although innocence too is a portion of justice, yet the consummation of it is found in the humble person; and he who can say, "It is good for me that you have humbled me," he is truly humble. He who tolerates it unwillingly cannot say this; still less, he who murmurs. To neither of these do we promise grace because he is humiliated: although indeed these two differ greatly from one another, and the one possesses his soul in his patience, while the other perishes in his murmuring. But truly even if one avoids wrath, neither merits grace; because God gives grace not to the humiliated, but to the humble. Now he is humble who converts humiliation into humility, and he it is who says to God: "It is good for me that you have humbled me." For no one at all is it a good thing that he bears patiently; it is plainly burdensome. But we know that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7). Whence also when we fast, we are commanded to anoint our head with oil and to wash our face (Mt 6:17), so that our good work may be seasoned with a certain spiritual joy, and our holocaust may become rich. For only joyful and unconstrained humility merits the grace which it displays. For that which is forced or extorted, such as is indeed found in that patient man who possesses his soul: this humility, I say, although it obtains life on account of patience, will nevertheless not have grace on account of its sadness. For that word of Scripture does not suit him who is of this sort: "Let the humble man glory in his exaltation" (Jas 1:9); since he is not humbled willingly, nor gladly.
4. But do you wish to see a humble man rightly glorying, and truly worthy of glory? "Gladly," he says, "will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me" (2 Cor 12:9). He does not say that he patiently bears his infirmities, but that he even glories, and gladly glories in them, proving also that it is good for him that he is humbled; nor is it at all sufficient that he possess his soul as one patiently humbled, unless he also receives grace as one voluntarily humbled. But hear hence the general rule: "Everyone who humbles himself," he says, "will be exalted" (Lk 14:11). He signifies indeed that not every humility will be exalted, but only that which comes from the will, not from sadness, nor from necessity. Nor indeed, conversely, will everyone who is exalted be humbled; but only he who exalts himself will be humbled, namely on account of voluntary vanity. So therefore not he who is humbled, but he who voluntarily humbles himself, will be exalted; namely on account of the merit of the will. For suppose that the matter of humility is furnished through another, for example, reproaches, losses, punishments; not on that account will that man rightly be said to have been humbled by another rather than by himself, who has determined that all those things are to be undergone with a quiet and joyful conscience, for the sake of God.
5. But where are we going? Patiently, as I perceive, you endure this digression in a discourse on humility and patience; but let us return to the place from which we departed. For this occurred to us from the occasion of the response by which the bridegroom judged that the bride, who was presuming great things, should be checked, and not to her foolishness; but so that from it an occasion of more praiseworthy and greater humility might be given, through which she would become more worthy of greater things and more capable of those very things she was seeking. Nevertheless, because we are still at the threshold of the present chapter, let us begin the discussion of it, if you please, at the start of another sermon, especially lest the words of the bridegroom be either recounted or heard with tedium. May he himself avert this from his servants, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God over all things, blessed forever. Amen.
Translated from the Latin by AI. Source: Migne, Patrologia Latina 183.