Sermon 68 on the Song of Songs — Bernard of Clairvaux
How the Bridegroom Christ Attends to the Bride the Church, and She to Him; and Concerning the Care Which God Has for the Elect. Likewise Concerning the Merit and Confidence of the Church.
1. Hear now what we deferred yesterday, hear my joy which I have felt. And it is yours: hear it rejoicing. In one word of the bride I felt this, and as it were caught the scent of something hidden, to be set forth for you today all the more festively, inasmuch as it comes more seasonably. The bride has spoken, and she said that the bridegroom attends to her. Who is the bride, and who is the bridegroom? He is our God: and she, if I dare say it, is we ourselves, together indeed with the remaining multitude of captives, whom he himself knows. Let us rejoice: this is our glory; we are those to whom God attends. How great, however, is the disparity. What are the earthborn and the sons of men before him? According to the prophet, so they are as though they were not, and as nothing and emptiness are they accounted by him (Isa 40:17). What then does this comparison between ones so unequal mean? Either she glories beyond measure, or he loves beyond measure. How admirable it is that she claims his attention for herself as though it were her own, saying: "My beloved is mine"! Nor content with this, she proceeds to glory further, that she responds to him as though from an equal standing, that she complies, that she repays in kind. For there follows: "And I am his" (Song 2:16). A bold word, "and I am his." No less bold, "my beloved is mine": except that bolder than either is both together.
2. O what does a pure heart dare, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned! "He attends to me," she says. Is it so, that that majesty, upon which the governance and administration alike of the universe falls, is attentive to this one; and the care of the ages is transferred to the sole business, or rather the sole leisure, of this love and desire? It is plainly so. For she is the Church of the elect, concerning whom the Apostle says: "All things for the sake of the elect" (2 Tim 2:10). And who doubts that the grace and mercy of God is upon his saints, and his regard upon his elect? (Wis 4:15). Therefore we do not deny providence to the other creatures: but the bride claims the care for herself. "Does God care about oxen?" (1 Cor 9:9). Nor is there any doubt that we can say the same of horses, of camels, of elephants, and of all the beasts of the earth: likewise also of the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky; lastly, of every thing that is upon the earth, with the sole exception of those to whom it is said: "Casting all your care upon him, for he himself cares for you" (1 Pet 5:7). Does it not seem to you as if it were said in these words: Attend to him, because he himself attends to you? And observe whether the apostle Peter (for they are his words) did not himself also observe the order of the bride's words. For he does not say: "Casting all your care upon him, so that he may care for you"; but "because he himself cares for you": openly showing thereby that the Church of the saints is not only how beloved, but also that she was beloved first.
3. It is established that the word which the Apostle spoke about oxen does not pertain to her: for he who loved her and gave himself for her has care of her. Is not this that wandering sheep, whose care was set above even the care of the flocks above? At length, those having been set aside, the shepherd descended to this one, sought her diligently, and when found did not lead her back but carried her back: he brought into the heavens new festivities of joy with her and on her account, the peoples of the angels having been invited to the solemnity (Lk 15:4-7, 10). What then? He deigned to carry her back on his own shoulders; and will he not have care of her? Therefore she is not ashamed to say: "The Lord is concerned for me" (Ps 39:18). Nor does she consider herself to err when she likewise says: "The Lord will repay on my behalf" (Ps 137:8); and if there is anything else of the kind that seems to signify the care of God concerning her. Hence it is that she calls the Lord of hosts her beloved, and glories that he who judges all things with tranquillity (Wis 12:18) attends to her. Why should she not glory? She has heard him saying to her: "Can a mother forget, so as not to have mercy on the son of her womb? And even if she should forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isa 49:15). Finally, "the eyes of the Lord are upon the just" (Ps 33:16). And what is the bride, if not the congregation of the just? What is she, if not a generation of those seeking the Lord, seeking the face of the bridegroom? For he does not attend to her without her attending to him. Therefore she sets down both, saying: "He is mine, and I am his." He is mine, because he is kind and merciful; I am his, because I am not ungrateful. He attends to me with grace upon grace, I to him with grace for grace; he to my liberation, I to his honor; he to my salvation, I to his will; he is mine, and not another's, since I am his one dove; I am his, and not another's: for I do not hear the voice of strangers; nor do I acquiesce to those who say to me: "Behold, here is Christ"; or, "Behold, there he is" (Mk 13:21). Thus speaks the Church.
4. What of each single one of us? Do we think there is anyone among us to whom what is said can be fitted? What did I say, among us? But even concerning anyone at all established within the Church, if someone should ask this, I would not consider it altogether to be censured. For the account of one is not the same as that of many. For it was not on account of one soul, but on account of many to be gathered into one Church, to be bound together into a single bride, that God both did and endured so many things, when he worked salvation in the midst of the earth. That most dear one is one for one, not clinging to another bridegroom, not yielding to another bride. What would she not dare with so ambitious a lover? What would she not hope from him, who sought her from heaven, called her from the ends of the earth? Nor did he merely seek her, but he acquired her. Consider also the manner of the acquisition, in the blood of the acquirer. But otherwise, as is her wont, she presumes all the more on this account, because looking forward into the future she is not ignorant that the Lord has need of her. You ask for what? For seeing in the goodness of his elect, for rejoicing in the joy of his nation, that he may be praised with his inheritance (Ps 105:5). Nor should you consider this a small work: no work, I tell you, will remain perfect if this one should waver. Does not the end of all things depend on the state and consummation of the Church? Take this away, and in vain does the lower creation await the revelation of the sons of God. Take this away, and neither the patriarchs nor any of the prophets will be made perfect, since Paul asserts that God so provided for us, that without us they should not be made perfect (Heb 11:40). Take this away, and the glory of the holy angels themselves will limp on account of the incompleteness of their number, and the city of God will not rejoice in its own integrity.
5. Whence then shall the purpose of God be fulfilled, and the mystery of his will, and that great sacrament of piety? Whence lastly will you give me infants and sucklings, from whose mouth God may perfect his praise? (Ps 8:3). Heaven does not have infants; the Church has them, to whom she also says: "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food" (1 Cor 3:2). And these are invited by the Prophet to complete the praise, as it were, saying: "Praise the Lord, you children" (Ps 112:1). Do you think our God will have the full praise of his glory, until those come who in the sight of the angels may sing to him: "We rejoiced for the days in which you humbled us, for the years in which we saw evil"? (Ps 89:15). This kind of joy the heavens have not known, except through the children of the Church; no one ever rejoices in this way, who never does not rejoice. Fittingly does joy come after sadness, rest after labor, a harbor after shipwreck. Security pleases all, but more so him who has feared. Light is delightful to all, but more delightful to one escaping from the power of darkness. To have passed from death to life doubles the grace of life. This is my portion in the heavenly banquet, and set apart from the blessed spirits themselves. I dare to say that the blessed life itself is without experience of my blessedness, unless it deigns to confess that through charity it enjoys it in me and through me. Something indeed seems to have been added to that very perfection from me, and this not a little. For the angels rejoice at the repentance of a sinner. But if my tears are the delights of the angels, what are their own delights? Their whole work is to praise God: but something is wanting to the praise, if those are lacking who say: "We passed through fire and water, and you brought us out into refreshment" (Ps 65:12).
6. Happy therefore in her universality is the Church, whose every boasting is unequal to its cause, not only for those things which have already been done for her, but also for those which must yet be done concerning her. For why should she be anxious about merits, when a firmer and more secure ground of boasting lies at hand in the purpose of God? God cannot deny himself, nor can he fail to do what he has already done, as it is written, "who has done the things that are to come" (Isa 46:10). He will do it, he will do it, nor will God be wanting to his own purpose. Thus there is no reason for you to ask by what merits we may hope for good things, especially since you hear from the prophet: "Not for your sake, but for my own sake I will do it, says the Lord" (Ezek 36:22). It suffices for merit to know that merits do not suffice. But as it is enough for merit not to presume upon merits, so to be without merits is enough for judgment. Furthermore, none of the reborn infants is without merits, but they have the merits of Christ. Those, however, render themselves unworthy of these, who have not been unable but have neglected to join their own. Which danger indeed belongs to those already of adult age. Therefore take care to have merits; once you have them, know that they were given; hope for the fruit, which is the mercy of God: and you will have escaped every danger of poverty, of ingratitude, and of presumption. Pernicious is the poverty that is a penury of merits; but presumption of spirit is deceitful riches. And therefore "give me neither riches nor poverty, Lord," says the Wise Man (Prov 30:8). Happy is the Church, which lacks neither merits without presumption, nor presumption without merits. She has that on which to presume, but not merits: she has merits, but for deserving, not for presuming. Is not this very not-presuming itself a deserving? Therefore she presumes the more securely, inasmuch as she does not presume: and there is nothing by which she should be confounded in the word of glory, for whom there is ample matter for glorying. The mercies of the Lord are many, and his truth endures forever.
7. Why should she not glory in security, in testimony of whose glory mercy and truth have met together? (Ps 84:11). Whether she says: "My beloved is mine"; or whether she says: "With expectation I waited for the Lord, and he attended to me"; or whether: "The Lord is concerned for me" (Ps 39:2, 18); or if there are any other voices of this kind, which seem likewise to express a certain divine affection and singular favor toward something: she will consider none of these foreign to herself, whose ground for presuming is the decree of the Lord, especially since she sees no other bride, no other Church, to whom can be done the things that cannot not be done. Therefore concerning the Church it is clear that she will not hesitate to apply all those things to herself in any respect. Concerning a single soul the question is also asked, whether, if she is spiritual and holy, it is in any way permissible for her to dare such things. For she will not arrogate to herself all the prerogatives of that one catholic multitude, on account of which all things are done, she being one of the multitude, however eminent she may be in holiness. And therefore with greater difficulty, as I sense it, will it be found, if indeed it is found, how this can be permissible. Whence I consider it necessary that this be attempted in another sermon, and that we not now enter upon the paths of a thorny disputation, whose exit we still do not know, unless first prayer concerning the hidden word shall have been made to him who opens and no one shuts, 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.