Sermon 78 on the Song of Songs — Bernard of Clairvaux
That the Bride, That Is the Church of the Elect, Was Predestined by God Before the Ages, and Prevented by Him So That She Might Seek Him and Be Converted.
1. At the word "finding," if I remember rightly, we stopped there and lingered, hearing somewhat scrupulously that the bride said she had been found by her preachers. Moreover the causes of our hesitation and doubt were expressed by us, and it seemed that something needed to be inquired into; but it could not be explained at the close of the sermon, by which we were already being pressed. What remains, except that we now pay the debt? In the explanation of a great mystery — I speak of that which the Doctor of the nations interpreted as being in Christ and in the Church, the holy and chaste marriage (Eph 5:32) — that itself is the work of our salvation: in it, I say, three cooperate with one another; God, angel, man. And God indeed, why should he not work and have care for the nuptials of his beloved Son? He himself truly does so, and with his whole will. And assuredly he would suffice by himself alone, even without the assistance of these others; but they without him can do nothing. Therefore what he enlisted from them into the work of this ministry, he did not seek as a solace for himself, but sought their advancement. For to men indeed he placed merits in the work, according to that saying: "The laborer is worthy of his hire" (Lk 10:7); and because "each shall receive according to his own labor" (1 Cor 3:8), whether he who plants in faith, or he who waters what has been planted. But when he uses the ministry of angels for the salvation of the human race, does he not cause that angels be loved by men? For that men are loved by angels can be most especially perceived from this, that the angels are not ignorant that the ancient losses of their city are to be repaired from among men. Nor indeed was it fitting that the kingdom of charity be governed by any other laws than the pious and mutual loves of those who are to reign together, and their pure affections toward one another and toward God.
2. But there is much difference in the manner of working, according, of course, to the dignity of each worker. God indeed does what he wills by the sole facility of willing itself, without exertion, without motion, without regard to place or time, or cause, or person. For he is the Lord of hosts, who "judges all things with tranquility" (Wis 12:18). He is also Wisdom "disposing all things sweetly" (Wis 8:1). Moreover the angel does not work without motion, both local and temporal, yet without exertion. But man is free from neither the exertion of spirit nor the motion of body and soul in working. In short, he is commanded to work out his own salvation "with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12), and to eat his bread "in the sweat of his face" (Gen 3:19).
3. These things having been thus explained, consider now with me that in this so magnificent work of our salvation there are three certain things which God the author claims for himself, and in which he prevents all his helpers and co-workers: predestination, creation, inspiration. Of these, predestination — I do not say from the beginning of the Church, but not even from the beginning of the world — had its beginning, not indeed from this or that time: it is before time. Moreover creation is with time; inspiration already happens in time, where and when God wills. Indeed, according to predestination the Church of the elect was never not with God. If an unbeliever marvels at this, let him hear what he may marvel at more: she never was not pleasing, never was not beloved. Why should I not boldly speak the secret which that ready reporter of heavenly counsels opened to me from the heart of God? I speak of Paul, who, as with many other things, so also this secret from the riches of his goodness was not afraid to divulge: "He blessed us," he says, "with every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in his sight in love"; and he adds: "Who predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ in himself, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he made us accepted in the beloved Son" (Eph 1:3-6). Nor is there any doubt that these things are said in the voice of all the elect: and they themselves are the Church. In that therefore so profound bosom of eternity, before she came forth into the light and work of this creation, who among even the blessed spirits would have been able in any way to find her, unless eternity itself, which is God, had willed to reveal her?
4. But even when she seemed already to have emerged at the nod of the Creator into these fabricated and visible species and forms, she was nevertheless not immediately found by any man or angel, because she was not recognized, shadowed as she was by the image of the earthly man, and covered by the darkness of death. Without which veil indeed of universal confusion no one of the sons of men entered this life, with one assuredly excepted, who enters without stain. Emmanuel he is, who nevertheless himself also, being from us, for our sakes clothed himself in the likeness, not the reality, of our curse and our sin. For thus you have it, that "he appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that from sin he might condemn sin in the flesh" (Rom 8:3). For the rest, the entrance is one for all in all respects, for the elect, I say, and the reprobate. For there is no distinction. All have sinned, and all wear the hood of their shame. On account of this therefore, even though the Church already existed as created among created things, not even so could she be found or recognized by any creature, meanwhile lying hidden in a wondrous twofold manner, both within the bosom of blessed predestination and within the mass of wretched damnation.
5. But her whom predestining Wisdom had concealed from eternity, and creating Power had likewise by no means brought forth from the beginning, visiting grace in its own time revealed, according to the operation which I therefore called inspiration above, because something from the spirit of the Bridegroom was infused into human spirits in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, that is, to prepare the way for the Lord, and for the Gospel of his glory, to the hearts of all, as many as were predestined to life. In vain would the watchmen have labored in preaching, if this grace had not preceded. But now truly, seeing the word run swiftly, and the peoples of the nations turn to the Lord with all facility, tribes and tongues running together into the unity of the faith, and the ends of the earth being gathered into one catholic mother, they recognized from the riches of grace, which from the ages had been held hidden in the secret of eternal predestination, and they rejoiced that they had found her whom before the ages the Lord had chosen as a bride for himself.
6. From this, as I think, it becomes clear that it is not idle that the bride testified she was found by them; but because she recognized that she was gathered by them, not chosen; discovered, not converted. For the conversion of each must be ascribed to him to whom all must of necessity say that word from the psalm: "Convert us, O God of our salvation" (Ps 84:5). But perhaps I should not so fittingly apply the word of finding to him, as that of conversion. Indeed it is so. It is not for the Lord to find, but to prevent, and prevention excludes finding. For what can he find, who never did not know? "The Lord knows who are his," says a certain one (2 Tim 2:19). But what does he himself say? "I know," he says, "whom I have chosen from the beginning" (Jn 13:18). Plainly, her whom he foreknew from eternity, whom he chose, whom he loved, whom he created, it was not reasonable for her to be declared found by the same one. Yet that she was prepared by him so that she might be found, I will say confidently. For he who saw bore witness, "and we know that his testimony is true" (Jn 19:35). "I saw," he says, "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending from heaven, prepared by God as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev 21:2): and he was one of the watchmen who guard the city. But hear her preparer himself, as it were pointing her out with his finger to the watchmen, but under another figure. "Lift up your eyes," he says, "and see the fields, that they are white already," that is, prepared, "for harvest" (Jn 4:35). From this the householder invites laborers to the work, when he has now perceived that all things are so prepared that without much labor of their own they can glory and say, "we are God's co-workers" (1 Cor 3:9). For what are they going to do? Namely, seek the bride, and announce to her whom they have found concerning the beloved. For they will not seek their own glory, but the glory of the bridegroom, since they are friends of the bridegroom. And for this they will not labor much with her: she is at hand, and already with all devotion she seeks him; so greatly has her will been prepared by the Lord.
7. For when they had not yet spoken anything, she asks about the beloved, and she prevents her preachers, being herself prevented, inquiring and saying: "Have you seen him whom my soul loves?" (Song 3:3). Rightly therefore she declared that she was found by those who guard the city, she who already knew herself to have been foreknown and prevented by the Lord of the city, so that they might find her such, not make her such. Thus Cornelius was found by Peter, and Paul by Ananias, for both had been prevented and prepared by the Lord. What was readier than Saul, who with a suppliant mind and voice had already cried out: "Lord, what do you wish me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Nor was Cornelius any less ready, who by his almsgiving and his prayers, the Lord indeed inspiring them in him, merited to attain to faith (Acts 10:4). Philip also found Nathanael; but the Lord had first already seen him when he was under the fig tree: and was that seeing by the Lord not a preparation? And Andrew is likewise reported to have found Simon his brother, but one equally foreseen and foreknown by the Lord, so that he would be called Cephas, as it were strong in faith (Jn 1:45, 48, 41, 42).
8. We read of Mary that "she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 1:18). But I think the bride of the Lord has something similar in this respect to his mother. For unless she also had been found as having from the Holy Spirit, she would by no means have so familiarly inquired from those who found her concerning him whose Spirit that is. She did not wait for them to declare for what purpose they had come; she herself spoke, and indeed from the abundance of the heart: "Have you seen him whom my soul loves?" She knew that blessed were the eyes that had seen, and marveling at those who had seen, she was saying: Are you those to whom it was given to see him whom so many kings and prophets wished to see and did not see? Are you those who merited to behold Wisdom in the flesh, Truth in a body, God in a man? Many say, "Behold, he is here," and "Behold, he is there"; but I think it safer to give credence to you, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And let this be said concerning what the bride asked of the watchmen. If anything is lacking, it will be supplied in another sermon. But now from this it is especially clear that she was prevented by the Holy Spirit; but by those who guard the city she was found and discovered, because she truly is the one whom God foreknew and predestined before the ages, and prepared for his beloved Son as eternal delights unto everlasting ages, that she might be holy and blameless in his sight, budding like a lily and flowering forever before the Lord, the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church, who is God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
Translated from the Latin by AI. Source: Migne, Patrologia Latina 183.