The king hath brought me into his storerooms:
we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine:
the righteous love thee. Song 1:3 (Vulgate)
The fact is that St. Bernard digresses often. Sermon
24 consists of two themes. Entitled “DETRACTION AND MAN’S RIGHTEOUSNESS”, the sermon speaks of those who
are critical of the bride.
… for
in almost any group of young maidens I find some who watch the bride’s actions,
not to imitate but to disparage them. Ser 24.3
After four paragraphs of describing the disparagement he cites, he begins to describe what the righteous are like.
ll. 5. … let me return to the theme
I set out to explain, and show who are to be understood here as the
"righteous." I am sure that nobody here with a right understanding
would hold that those who love the bride [the Church?] are being spoken of in
regard to physical perfection. It is spiritual righteousness, that of the soul,
that must be explained. It is the Spirit who teaches, interpreting spiritual
truths to those who possess the Spirit.27 Therefore God made man
righteous in his soul,28 not in the body made of earthly slime. He
created him according to his own image and likeness.29 He is the one
of whom you sing: "The Lord our God is righteous, and there is no iniquity
in him."30 God in his righteousness made man righteous like
himself, without iniquity, since there is no iniquity in him. Iniquity is a
fault in the heart, not in the flesh, and so you should realize that the
likeness of God is to be preserved or restored in your spirit, not in the body
of gross clay. For "God is a spirit,”31 and those who wish to
persevere in or 
attain to his likeness must
enter into their hearts, and apply themselves spiritually to that work, until
"with unveiled face, 
beholding the glory of the
Lord," they "become transfigured into the same likeness, borrowing
glory from that glory, as the Spirit of the Lord enables them.”32
CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER SEVEN - BERNARD OF
CLAIRVAUX - Song of Songs II
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