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Tuesday 26 February 2013

DoC and Perfection: Bernard of Clairvaux Part 57; The love of strength

I am sure that readers can tell by now that I cannot write enough on my favourite male saints, Bernard of Clairvaux. I hope you have received his insights and experiences of God with the pleasure and amazement with which I have chosen these.

His writings would fill my little room. But, his three volumes of his Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles are all I would need for meditations for years to come.

I have not commented much, as how can one in my lowly state comment on a soul who came to unity with God before he died? That Bernard was given illumination by God about love and the soul is clear.



Therefore, here is one more section, which I share.


But there is something else that moves me, arouses and enflames me even more.
Good Jesus, the chalice you drank, the price of our redemption, makes me love you
more than all the rest. This alone would be enough to claim our love. This, I say, is what
wins our love so sweetly, justly demands it, firmly binds it, deeply affects it. Our Savior
had to toil so hard in this, in fact in making the whole world the Creator did not labor so
much. Then he spoke and they were made; he commanded and they were created. But
in saving us he had to endure men who contradicted his words, criticized his actions,
ridiculed his sufferings, and mocked his death. See how much he loved us. 

Add to this
the fact that he was not returning love but freely offering it. For who had given him
anything first, that it should be returned to him? As St John said: "Not that we had loved
him, but that he first loved us." He loved us even before we existed, and in addition he
loved us when we resisted him. According to the witness of St Paul: "Even when we
were still his enemies we were reconciled to God through the blood of his Son." 
If he had not loved his enemies, he could not have had any friends, just as he would have
had no one to love if he had not loved those who were not.

In our darkness and stupidity, Christ loves us first. He waits; he freely gives.





His love was sweet, and wise, and strong. I call it sweet because he took on a human
body, wise because he avoided sin, strong because he endured death. Even though he
took a body, his love was never sensual, but always in the wisdom of the Spirit. "A Spirit
before our face is Christ the Lord," jealous of us but with the jealousy of God, not man,
and certainly not like that of the first man, Adam, for Eve. So those whom he sought
after in a body, he loved in the spirit and redeemed in power. How sweet it is to see as
man the Creator of humanity. While he carefully protected nature from sin, he forcefully
drove death from that nature also. In taking a body he stooped to me, in avoiding sin he took counsel with himself, in accepting death he satisfied the Father. 

A dear friend, a
wise counselor, a strong helper. Should I not willingly entrust myself to the one who had
the good will, the wisdom, the strength to save me? He sought me out, he called me
through grace; will he refuse me as I come to him? I fear neither force nor fraud which
can snatch me from his hand. He is the one who conquered all things, even death, and
tricked the serpent, the seducer of the world, with a holy deception. He was more
prudent than the one, more powerful than the other. He took to himself a true body but
only the likeness of sin, giving a sweet consolation to weak men in the one and in the
other hiding a trap to deceive the devil. To reconcile us to the Father he bravely suffered
death and conquered it, pouring out his blood as the price of our redemption. His divine
majesty would not have sought me in chains unless he had loved me so tenderly, but he
added wisdom to his affection by which he deceived the serpent. Then he added
patience with which to appease his divine Father who had been offended.
These are the qualities of love of which I promised to tell you. But I have shown them to

you first in Christ, to make them so much more acceptable to you.

Be simple and look for the one thing that matters....

Christian, learn from Christ how you ought to love Christ. Learn a love that is tender,
wise, strong; love with tenderness, not passion, wisdom, not foolishness, and strength,
lest you become weary and turn away from the love of the Lord. Do not let the glory of
the world or the pleasure of the flesh lead you astray; the wisdom of Christ should
become sweeter to you than these. The light of Christ should shine so much for you that
the spirit of lies and deceit will not seduce you. 

Finally, Christ as the strength of God
should support you so that you may not be worn down by difficulties. 

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.




Let love enkindle
your zeal, let knowledge inform it, let constancy strengthen it. Keep it fervent, discreet,
courageous. See it is not tepid, or temerarious, or timid. See for yourself if those three
commands are not prescribed in the law when God says: "You shall love the Lord your
God with your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole strength." It seems to me, if
no more suitable meaning for this triple distinction comes to mind, that the love of the
heart relates to a certain warmth of affection, the love of the soul to energy or judgment
of reason, and the love of strength can refer to constancy and vigor of spirit.


So love the
Lord your God with the full and deep affection of your heart, love him with your mind
wholly awake and discreet, love him with all your strength, so much so that you would
not even fear to die for love of him. As it is written: "For love is strong as death, jealousy
is bitter as hell." Your affection for your Lord Jesus should be both tender and intimate,
to oppose the sweet enticements of sensual life. Sweetness conquers sweetness as
one nail drives out another. No less than this keep him as a strong light for your mind
and a guide for your intellect, not only to avoid the deceits of heresy and to preserve the
purity of your faith from their seductions, but also that you might carefully avoid an
indiscreet and excessive vehemence in your conversation. Let your love be strong and
constant, neither yielding to fear nor cowering at hard work. Let us love affectionately,
discreetly, intensely. We know that the love of the heart, which we have said is
affectionate, is sweet indeed, but liable to be led astray if it lacks the love of the soul.
And the love of the soul is wise indeed, but fragile without that love which is called the
love of strength.

To be continued....