Sermon 69 on the Song of Songs — Bernard of Clairvaux
How Every Height Exalting Itself Against the Knowledge of God Is Cast Down. On the Coming and Abiding of the Father and the Word with the Soul That Loves, and on the Familiarity That Is Thereby Contracted Between God and the Soul.
1. "My beloved to me, and I to him" (Song 2:16). The preceding discourse assigned this voice to the universal Church, on account of the promises of life made to her by God, both of the life which now is and of the life to come; the question now before us concerns the individual soul, because one soul cannot arrogate to itself what the whole body dares to claim, nor in any way draw that claim to itself. If it is not permitted, let us therefore refer it to the Church in such a way that it applies by no means to a single person; and not only this voice, but also the remaining voices similar to it, speaking great things, for example: "Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he attended to me" (Ps 39:2); and whatever others the preceding discourse touched upon. But if anyone thinks it is permitted, I do not refuse; yet it matters to whom: for it is not permitted to just anyone. Assuredly the Church of God has her spiritual ones, who not only faithfully, but also confidently deal in this matter, speaking with God as with a friend, their conscience bearing witness to the glory that is his. Who they are is known to God alone; but you, hear what manner of person you ought to be, if you wish to be such. What I shall say, however, is not as one who has experienced it, but as one who desires to experience it. Give me a soul loving nothing besides God, and that which is to be loved on account of God; for whom to live is Christ, not only now but for a long time already; whose study and leisure it is to set the Lord always before its sight; whose one will—not to say great will—and whose capacity it is to walk carefully with the Lord its God: give me, I say, such a soul, and I do not deny it worthy of the Bridegroom's care, of the regard of his majesty, of the favor of him who rules, of the solicitude of him who governs; and if it should wish to glory, it will not be foolish, provided that he who glories, glories in the Lord. Thus in what many dare, one also dares, but for a different reason.
2. For the holy multitude is made confident by the aforesaid causes; but a holy soul, by a certain twofold reason. First, indeed, because the divinity of the Bridegroom, in its most simple nature, has the capacity, as it were, to regard many as one and one as many. He will not be multiplied for the multitude, nor diminished for the few; nor divided for diversity, nor restricted to one; nor anxious amid cares, nor disturbed or troubled amid solicitudes. Thus indeed intent upon one, yet not detained; thus upon many, yet not distended. Then, because as it is most sweet to prove it, so it is most rare to have proved it; so great is the condescension of the Word, so great the benevolence of the Father of the Word toward a well-disposed and well-ordered soul (which is itself the gift of the Father and the work of the Word), that the soul which they have preceded and prepared for themselves with such a blessing, they deign also to honor with their presence, and in such a way that they not only come to it, but also make their abode with it (Jn 14:23). For it does not suffice to show themselves, unless they also grant free access to themselves. What is it for the Word to come to a soul? To instruct it in wisdom. What is it for the Father to come? To dispose it to the love of wisdom, so that it can say: "I have become a lover of her beauty" (Wis 8:2). To love is the Father's nature: and therefore the coming of the Father is proved from the love that has been poured in. What would instruction do without love? It would puff up. What would love do without instruction? It would go astray. Indeed they were going astray, those of whom it was said: "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Rom 10:2). It does not befit the Bride of the Word to be foolish; moreover, the Father does not tolerate one who is puffed up. For the Father loves the Son, and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of the Word, he always has at hand to cast down and to destroy, whether by sending zeal or by directing it: of which the former is of mercy, the latter of judgment. Would that in me every exaltation might be suppressed, nay cast down and reduced to nothing, not by kindled fury, but by infused love! Would that I might learn not to be proud, but with anointing rather than with punishment as my teacher! "Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury," as you did the angel exalting himself in heaven; "nor chastise me in your wrath", as you did man in paradise. Both meditated iniquity, affecting height: the one, of power; the other, of knowledge. For the foolish woman believed him who promised, but who was deceiving: "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5). Had he not already first deceived himself, he who had persuaded himself that he would be like the Most High? (Isa 14:14) For he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself (Gal 6:3).
3. But both heights were cast down, yet in man more gently, since he who does all things in weight and measure so judged it. For with the angel punished—nay, damned—in fury, man felt only wrath and not fury. For when he was wrathful, he remembered mercy. On this account his seed are children of wrath, and not of fury, to this present day. If I were not born a child of wrath, there would be no need to be born again; if I were born a child of fury, it would either not have happened or not have profited to be born again. Do you wish to see a child of fury? If you have seen Satan falling like lightning from heaven, which is to have been hurled down in the rush of fury, then you have come to know the fury of God. For indeed he did not remember his mercy; because when he shall have been wrathful, he will remember mercy—not when he shall already have blazed up all the way to fury. Woe to the children of distrust! To those also who are of Adam, who, born children of wrath, by diabolical obstinacy turn for themselves wrath into fury, the rod into a staff, nay into a hammer. For indeed they treasure up wrath for themselves in the day of wrath (Rom 2:5). But wrath accumulated—what is it but fury? They have sinned the sin of the devil, and they are struck down by the sentence of the devil. Woe also, though more gently, to certain children of wrath who, born in wrath, did not wait to be born again in grace! For having died in that same state in which they were born, they shall remain children of wrath. Of wrath, I say, not of fury; because, as is most piously believed and most compassionately bewailed, most gentle are the punishments of those whose whole guilt is drawn from elsewhere.
4. Therefore the devil was judged in fury, because his iniquity was found to be unto hatred; but man's unto wrath, and therefore he is chastised in wrath. Thus every height has been crushed, both that which puffs up and that which casts down, the Father indeed being zealous for the Son. For in both cases there is an injury to the Son: both from the usurped power against the power of God, which he himself is; and from the knowledge presumed from elsewhere than from the wisdom of God, which he no less is. "Lord, who is like you?" Who, if not the brightness and figure of your substance? Who, if not your image? He alone in your form, he alone did not consider it robbery to be equal to you, the Most High Son of the Most High (Phil 2:6). How is he not equal? Indeed you and he are one. His seat is at your right hand, not beneath your feet. How does anyone dare to invade the place of your Only-begotten? Let him be cast down. He sets his seat on high; let the seat of pestilence be overturned. Likewise, who teaches man knowledge? Is it not you, O key of David, opening to whom you will and closing to whom you will? And how was an entry, nay an irruption, into the treasures of wisdom and knowledge attempted without the key? He who does not enter through the door is a thief and a robber. Peter therefore shall enter, who received the keys. Yet not alone: for he will also introduce me, if he shall have willed it, and will exclude another whom perhaps he shall have willed, in the knowledge and power given to him from above.
5. And what are these keys? The power of opening and closing, and the discernment between those to be excluded and those to be admitted. And the treasures are not in the serpent, but in Christ. And therefore the serpent could not give the knowledge which he did not have; but he who had it, gave it. Nor indeed could the serpent have the power which he did not receive; but he who received it, had it. Christ gave (Mt 16:19), Peter received, and was neither puffed up by the knowledge, nor to be cast down on account of the power. Why? Because in neither does he exalt himself against the knowledge of God, who desired none of these things apart from the knowledge of God, as did that one who dealt deceitfully in his sight, "that his iniquity might be found unto hatred" (Ps 35:3). How indeed was it apart from the knowledge of God, when Peter writes of himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father"? (1 Pet 1:1-2). And let these things be said on account of what has come up concerning the zeal of God, which he directed against the angel and the man who transgressed (for in both he found wickedness); that is, how in his wrath and in his fury he destroyed every height exalting itself against the knowledge of God.
6. Now we must return to the zeal of mercy, that is, the zeal which is not directed, but which is sent; since the one that is directed, as we have already said, is of judgment, and has sufficiently terrified us from the recalled examples of those so grievously punished. Therefore I shall go for myself to the place of refuge from the face of the fury of the Lord, to that zeal of piety sweetly burning and efficaciously atoning. Does not charity atone? And powerfully so. I have read that it covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8). But I say: Is it not fit and sufficient for casting down and humbling every exaltation of the eyes and of the heart? Most especially: for it is not exalted, it is not puffed up. If therefore the Lord Jesus deigns to come to me, or rather into me, not in the zeal of fury, and not even in wrath, but in charity and the spirit of gentleness, emulating me with a godly emulation—for what is so godly as charity? For indeed it is God—if, I say, he shall have come in this, in this I shall know that he is not alone, but that his Father also has come with him. For what is so fatherly? On this account indeed he is called not only Father of the Word, but also Father of mercies (2 Cor 1:3), because it is innate in him always to have mercy and to spare. If I should feel that understanding is being opened to me, so that I understand the Scriptures, or the word of wisdom as it were bubbling up from within, or the light poured in from above revealing mysteries, or indeed a certain most ample bosom of heaven being unfolded to me, and richer showers of meditations flowing in upon my mind from on high: I do not doubt that the Bridegroom is present. For these are the riches of the Word, and from his fullness we receive these things. But if at the same time there shall have poured itself in a certain humble yet rich devotion of intimate sprinkling, so that the love of recognized truth begets in me a certain necessary hatred of vanity and contempt for it, lest perhaps either knowledge puff up, or the frequency of visitations exalt me: then I feel assuredly that I am being dealt with in a fatherly manner, and I do not doubt that the Father is present. But if I shall have persevered in always responding, as far as it is in me, to this condescension with worthy affections and acts, and the grace of God with me shall not have been empty: then both the Father who nourishes and the Word who instructs shall make their abode with me also.
7. How great, do you think, is the grace of familiarity that arises from this abiding between the soul and the Word, how great the confidence that follows from the familiarity? It is not, I think, that such a soul should any longer be afraid to say: "My beloved to me"; for from the fact that it feels itself loving, and loving vehemently, it does not doubt that it is loved no less vehemently in return; and from its own singular intention, solicitude, care, effort, diligence, and zeal, with which it incessantly and ardently watches over how to please God, it recognizes without doubt all these same things equally in him, remembering his promise: "In what measure you shall have measured, it shall be measured to you again" (Mt 7:2); except that the prudent Bride is more cautious in drawing the requital of grace to her own side, knowing that she was rather preceded by the beloved. Hence it is that she puts forward his work first: "My beloved," she says, "to me, and I to him." Therefore from her own dispositions she recognizes what is in God; nor does she doubt that she is loved, she who loves. So it is. The love of God begets the love of the soul, and his preceding intention makes the soul intent, and his solicitude makes it solicitous. For I know not by what closeness of nature, once the soul shall have been able to behold the glory of God with face unveiled, it is necessary that it soon be conformed to it and transformed into the same image. Therefore, as you shall have prepared yourself for God, so it is necessary that God appear to you. "With the holy he will be holy, and with the innocent man he will be innocent" (Ps 17:26). Why not equally with one who loves, a lover; and with one who is at leisure, at leisure; and with one who is intent, intent; and solicitous with one who is solicitous?
8. For indeed he says: "I love those who love me, and those who watch for me at dawn will find me" (Prov 8:17). You see how he not only makes you certain of his love, if indeed you love him, but also of his solicitude, which he bears for you, if he has perceived you solicitous for him. Do you watch? He also watches. Rise up in the night at the beginning of your watches, hasten to anticipate even the watches themselves as much as you will; you will find him, you will not precede him. Rashly in such a matter you attribute to yourself something either prior or greater; he both loves more and loved before. If the soul knows this, nay because it knows it, do you marvel that it glories that that majesty, as if caring for nothing else, attends to it alone, to whom alone, all other cares set aside, it keeps itself with total devotion? This discourse desires an end; but one thing I say to those among you who are spiritual, a thing wondrous indeed but true: the soul that sees God sees no differently than as if it alone were seen by God. Therefore with this confidence it says that he attends to it, and it to him, seeing nothing besides itself and him. You are good, O Lord, to the soul that seeks you! You meet it, you embrace it, you show yourself as Bridegroom, you who are Lord, nay who are God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
Translated from the Latin by AI. Source: Migne, Patrologia Latina 183.