Sermon 44 on the Song of Songs — Bernard of Clairvaux
On moderating correction according to the disposition of those who sin: namely, that the humble and compliant are to be corrected gently, but the hard and obstinate severely.
1. "My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi" (Song 1:13). If the beloved is in myrrh, how much more in the sweetness of the cluster. Therefore my Lord Jesus, as myrrh to me in death, as a cluster in the resurrection, has tempered himself for me as a most wholesome drink, in tears in due measure. He died for our sins and rose again for our justification (Rom 4:25), that being dead to sins we might live to righteousness (1 Pet 2:24). And so you, if you have wept for your sins, you have drunk bitterness; but if you have already breathed again in hope of life by a holier way of living, the bitterness of myrrh has been changed for you into wine, which gladdens the heart of man. And perhaps this is what was signified by the fact that wine mixed with myrrh was offered to the Savior on the cross, and therefore he would not drink it, because he thirsted for this. You therefore, after the bitternesses of myrrh, as I said, experiencing the wine of joyfulness, not rashly may you also say: "My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi." Engaddi has a twofold interpretation, and both serve a single meaning. For it is called "fountain of the kid," and "baptism of the Gentiles"; and it openly designates the tears of sinners. It is also called "eye of temptation," which equally sheds tears; and watches over the temptations that are never at all absent from the life of man upon earth. But the people of the Gentiles also, who walked in darkness, could never by themselves recognize the snares of temptations, and therefore could not escape them, until through the grace of him who enlightens the blind, they received the eyes of faith; until they came to the Church, which has the eye of temptation; until they delivered themselves to spiritual men for instruction, who, enlightened by the spirit of wisdom and taught also by their own experience, can truly say that we are not ignorant of the wiles of the devil, and his designs (2 Cor 2:11).
2. They report that in Engaddi small balsam trees grow, which are cultivated by the inhabitants in the manner of vineyards: and from this perhaps he called them vineyards. Otherwise what would a cluster of Cyprus be doing in the vineyards of Engaddi? Who has ever transported clusters from vineyards into vineyards? For wine is customarily carried from elsewhere to where it is lacking, not to where it is already present. Therefore he calls the vineyards of Engaddi the congregations of the Church, which has the liquor of balsam, the spirit of gentleness, in which it tenderly fosters the tenderness of those who are still little ones in Christ, and consoles the sorrows of penitents. But also if any brother has been overtaken in some fault, the churchman who has already received this spirit will take care to instruct such a one presently in the same spirit of gentleness, considering himself, lest he also be tempted (Gal 6:1). In this type the Church has been accustomed even bodily to anoint with material oil all who are to be baptized.
3. But since the wounds of him who fell among thieves, and was carried upon the beast of the body of the compassionate Samaritan to the inn of the Church, receive healing not in oil alone but in wine and oil together (Lk 10:30-34): the spiritual physician needs also the wine of fervent zeal together with the oil of gentleness, to whom it assuredly belongs not only to console the fainthearted but also to correct the unruly. For if he shall see that the one who was wounded, that is, who sinned, is by no means amended by the gentle and mild exhortations that have been bestowed upon him, but rather is perhaps even abusing his gentleness and becoming more negligent through his patience, and falling asleep in his sin even more securely: when the oil of such sweet admonitions has been frustrated, it will be necessary indeed to use more biting remedies and to pour in the wine of compunction; that is, to deal with him by harsh rebukes and invectives, and, if the case requires it and the hardness is so great, even to strike the contemner with the rod of ecclesiastical censure. But whence comes this wine to him? For in the vineyards of Engaddi wine is not found, but oil. Let him seek it then in Cyprus: for that island is fertile in wine, and the finest wine; and taking from there for himself a great cluster, which the scouts of Israel once carried on a pole (Num 13:24), beautifully prefiguring the prophetic chorus going before and the apostolic following after, with Jesus in the middle: taking then this cluster let him say to himself: "My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus."
4. We have seen the cluster; let us see how the wine of zeal is pressed from it. For if a sinful man is by no means indignant at a sinning man, but rather, as it were sweating out upon him a certain dew of sweetest balsam, shows forth a pious affection of compassion; we know whence this comes, and you have already heard, but perhaps you have not noticed. For it was said that from the consideration of his own self there comes to each one the quality of being gentle toward all, since a man, by the counsel of the most wise Paul, in order to know how to condescend piously to those overtaken in sin, considers himself, lest he also be tempted (Gal 6:1). Does not the love of neighbor draw its root from this very source, concerning which it is commanded in the law: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lk 10:27)? From the inmost depths of human affections, fraternal love draws the beginnings of its origin, and from a certain natural sweetness implanted in man toward himself, as from earthly moisture, it draws without doubt its growth and force, by which, when grace indeed breathes from above, it brings forth fruits of piety: so that what the soul naturally desires for itself, it judges should not be denied by a certain right of humanity to a partner of its nature, that is, to another human being, where it can and where it ought, but should freely and willingly share it. There is present therefore in nature, if it has not become stale through sin, a liquor of this kind of pleasing and excellent sweetness, as it were, so that it feels and shows itself softer toward compassion for sinners rather than harsher toward indignation against them.
5. But because, according to the judgment of the Wise Man, dying flies destroy this ointment of sweetness (Eccl 10:1), and nature has nothing in itself by which to restore what has once been lost, it feels itself by a lamentable change collapsing into what Scripture truly says: "The senses and thoughts of man are prone to evil from his youth" (Gen 8:21). Not a good youth, in which the younger son demands that a portion of the father's substance be separated for himself, and begins to wish to divide a good that is more sweetly possessed in common; and to have alone what is not diminished by sharing but is lost by division. At length: "He squandered," it says, "all his goods living riotously with harlots" (Lk 15:11, 13). Who are these harlots? See whether they are not the very ones that destroy the ointment of sweetness, namely carnal concupiscences, about which Scripture most wholesomely warns you: "Go not after your concupiscences," it says (Sir 18:30). And the Wise Man rightly describes them as dying; since both the world passes away and the concupiscence of it (1 Jn 2:17). Therefore while we wish to satisfy these individually, we deprive ourselves of the singular sweetness of the common and shared good. These are truly filthy and stinging flies, which defile in us the beauty of nature, lacerate the mind with cares and anxieties, and destroy the sweetness of shared grace. Hence man is called "the younger son," because nature, corrupted by a certain slippery slide of senseless youth, has lost all the sap of manly maturity and wisdom; and, turned harsh, with a dry soul he despises everyone except himself, having become without affection.
6. Therefore from the onset of this most wicked and most wretched youth, "the senses and thoughts of man are prone to evil," and nature is readier for indignation than for compassion. Hence man, as though entirely stripped of his humanity, in the matter where he wishes to be helped by other men when he is in need, does not himself wish to help other men who are in need. Rather a sinful man judges, scorns, and mocks men who are sinning, not considering himself, lest he also be tempted. From this evil nature will by no means rise again by itself, as I said, nor will it recover the oil of inborn gentleness that has once been destroyed in it. Nevertheless what nature cannot do, grace can. Therefore when the unction of the Spirit has had mercy on a man and deigns to pour over him anew with its kindness, he will at once return to his humanity, and moreover will receive from grace something better than from nature. In faith and gentleness he will make him holy, and will give him not oil but balsam in the vineyards of Engaddi.
7. Nor indeed is it doubtful that the better gifts flow from the fountain of the kid, whose anointing assuredly turns kids into lambs and transfers sinners from the left hand to the right, who have been more abundantly drenched beforehand with the anointing of mercy, so that where sins abounded, grace may abound all the more (Rom 5:20). Does it not truly seem to you that this man has returned in a certain way to his humanity, who, having laid aside the ferocity of a worldly spirit, and having recovered the anointing of human gentleness, even with the interest of grace, which the flies of carnal desires had utterly destroyed in him; from his own humanity which he bears, or rather which he himself is, draws both the matter and the pattern of having mercy on other men, so that he shudders at it as at a certain savage grimace, not only to do to any man what he would not wish to suffer himself, but also not to do for all men all things whatsoever he would wish to be done for himself?
8. Behold whence the oil comes. The wine, whence? Assuredly from the cluster of Cyprus. For if you love the Lord Jesus with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength: will you, if you see his injuries and contempt, be able in any way to bear it with equanimity? By no means: but immediately, seized by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, and as though a mighty man heated with wine (Ps 77:65), filled with the zeal of Phinehas, you will say with David: "My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten your words" (Ps 118:139); and with the Lord: "Zeal for your house has consumed me" (Ps 68:10; Jn 2:17). This most fervent zeal, then, is wine pressed from the cluster of Cyprus, and the love of Christ is an inebriating cup. For our God is a consuming fire (Deut 4:24), and the prophet said that fire was sent from on high into his bones (Lam 1:13), because he was aflame with divine love. Having therefore the oil of gentleness from fraternal love, and the wine of emulation from divine love, approach confidently to heal the wounds of him who fell among thieves, an excellent imitator of the most compassionate Samaritan. Confidently also may you say with the bride: "My beloved is to me a cluster of Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi": that is, the zeal of justice, the love of my beloved, is to me in the affections of piety. And about this, enough. For my infirmity also commands a rest, as it often does; so that most of the time I am compelled, as you yourselves know, to leave discussions unfinished and to reserve the remaining chapters for another day. But what of it? I am ready for the scourges (Ps 33:18), knowing that I still receive things far unequal to my merits. Let me indeed be beaten, let me be beaten as one who does evil, if perhaps the blows may be reckoned as merits: perhaps he will have mercy on the one who has been scourged, who finds no good in me to reward, the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is over all things God blessed forever. Amen.
Translated from the Latin by AI. Source: Migne, Patrologia Latina 183.