St. Bernard Describes the Qualities of the Bride

St. Bernard's command of Scripture is amazingly displayed as he draws from a wide range of scriptural quotes to make the point of his sermon.

from Sermon 27.2-4 On the Song of Songs

His [Christ’s] power and his wisdom were undoubtedly present at the establishing of the heavens.[12] And do not imagine that he stood by idle, as merely a spectator, because he said "I was there," and not "I was cooperating." Search further on in this text and you will find that he clearly states he was with him arranging all things.[13] Therefore he said: "Whatever the Father does, the Son does too."[14] He it was who spread out the heavens like a curtain, a curtain of superlative beauty that covers the whole face of the earth like a huge tent,and charms our human eyes with the variegated spectacle of sun and moon and stars. Is there anything more lovely than this curtain? Anything more bejewelled than the heavens? Yet even this can in no way be compared to the splendor and comeliness of the bride. It fails because it is a physical thing, the object of our physical senses; its form will pass away.[15] “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."[16]

Il. 3. The bride's form must be understood in a spiritual sense, her beauty as something that is grasped by the intellect; it is eternal because it is an image of eternity. Her gracefulness consists of love, and you have read that "love never ends."[17] It consists of justice, for "her justice endures forever.”[18] It consists of patience, and Scripture tells you ' 'the patience of the poor shall not perish forever."[19] What shall I say of voluntary poverty? Of humility? To the former an eternal kingdom is promised,[20] to the latter an eternal exaltation.[21] To these must be added the holy fear of the Lord that endures for ever and ever;[22] prudence too, and temperance and fortitude and all other virtues; what are they but pearls in the jewelled raiment of the bride, shining with unceasing radiance? I say unceasing, because they are the basis, the very foundation of immortality. For there is no place for immortal and blissful life in the soul except by means and mediation of the virtues. Hence the Prophet, speaking to God who is eternal happiness, says: "Justice and judgment are the foundation of your throne.”[23] And the Apostle says that Christ dwells in our hearts, not in any and every way, but particularly by faith.²⁴ When Christ, too, was about to ride on the ass, the disciples spread their cloaks underneath him,[25] to signify that our Savior, or his salvation, will not rest in the naked soul until it is clothed with the teaching and discipline of the apostles. [26] Therefore the Church, possessing the promise of happiness to come,^[27] now prepares for it by adorning herself in cloth of gold, girding herself with a variety of graces and virtues,[28] in order to be found worthy and capable of the fulness of grace.

4. Though this visible, material heaven, with its great variety of stars is unsurpassingly beautiful within the bounds of the material creation, I should not dare to compare its beauty with the spiritual and varied loveliness she received with her first robe when being arrayed in the garments of holiness. But there is a heaven of heavens to which the Prophet refers. "Sing to the Lord who mounts above the heaven of heavens, to the east. "[29] This heaven is in the world of the intellect and the spirit; and he who made the heavens by his wisdom,[30] created it to be his eternal dwelling-place. ³¹ You must not suppose that the bride's affections can find rest outside of this heaven, where she knows her Beloved dwells: for where her treasure is, there her heart is too. ³² She so yearns for him that she is jealous of those who live in his presence; and since she may not yet participate in the vision that is theirs, she strives to resemble them in the way she lives. By deeds rather than words she proclaims: “Lord, I love the beauty of your house, the place where your glory dwells.[33]

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[12] 1 Cor 1:24   [13] Prov 8:30    [14] Jn 5:19      [15] 1 Cor 7:31   [16] 2 Cor 4:18   [17] 1Cor 13:8  [18] Ps 112:3    [19] Ps 10:19   [20] Mt 5:3   [21] Lk 14:11  [22] Ps19:10    [23] Ps 89:15    [24] Eph 3:17    [25] Mt 21:7    [26] 2 Cor 5:4    [27] 1 Tim 4:8    [28] Ps 45:10    [29] Ps 68:33-34    [30] Ps 136:5    [31] Is 40:22   [32] Mt 6:21    [33] Ps 26:8   One has been added to the references to Psalms in order to match the Psalms from the NAB. St. Bernard used the Vulgate.

text is from CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER SEVEN - BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - Song of Songs II

                  

                              

Song of Songs Chapters 1 and 2– Love of God Emanating from Nature

This is a personal reflection on the importance of nature and the love of God.

She asks: “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon ….”

He responds: “I compare you my love, to a mare of Pharaoh’s chariots.”

She: “While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. … a cluster of henna blossoms ….”

He: “Behold, you are beautiful, my love; … your eyes are like doves.”

She: “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.”

He: “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.”

She: “As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. …. Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am sick with love. ….  I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please. ….  My beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag. …. My beloved speaks and says to me:

He:  "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance.”

She: “Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.  My beloved is mine and I am his, he pastures his flock among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon rugged mountains.”[1]

How closely this dialogue between lovers is permeated by an appreciation of those things created by God. Love’s passion is excited by the sights and smells of nature unfolding; an unfolding that takes place without the intervention of men. Man’s gaze is directed heavenward.

“What is man that thou are mindful of him ….”[2]

“Thou hast given him dominion over the works of his hands; thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea ….”[2]

But now, in the comparatively short span of time man’s gaze has shifted. That expression of appreciation of mankind for the gift and its creator, i.e. mankind’s gaze heavenward, , has turned inward. We are now enamored of our ability to exercise dominion over nature. The natural world is no longer looked on as a beautiful creation of  God. Rather nature is seen as a haphazard circumstance to be dominated and improved upon by man's intelligence alone. No longer appreciative of nature and its orderly progressions, man has fallen in love with his ability to transform nature and create his own gifts.

Glass and steel buildings, advanced modes of communication, genetic engineering and manipulation of climate are all within man’s power. Given enough time there is nothing man cannot accomplish. We even seek to control time itself.

Lord, help us to return our look heavenward in appreciation of the beauty and order of the gifts you have created. Give us the ability to see the perfection inherent in your creation.  

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[1] Various verses from Song of Songs, Ch. 1 & 2, New American Bible Revised Edition - Donald Senior; John Collins; Mary Ann Getty. The Catholic Study Bible, Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. The text in this version of the Song of Songs is annotated indicating who is the speaker of each verse.

[2] ibid, Ps 8:6-8

ON FORGIVENESS

          
Sermon 23.15                        

Inability to sin is God’s righteousness; God’s forgiveness constitutes man’s…. Happy is the man whose fault is forgiven, whose sin is blotted out. Ps 32:1   When I say these words I am suddenly inspired with so great a confidence, filled with such joy,  that it surpasses the fear I experienced in the place of horror ,,,  Deut 32:10

                                              CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER SEVEN - BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - Song of Songs II

Sermon 22 – A Culinary Concoction

 

Beside a rather ingenious metaphor St. Bernard offers some insight into St. Bernard the man. He expresses a pastoral, even paternal, attitude toward the monks in his charge. Also, he displays a bit of ego by boasting of his hard work and by comparing himself to St. Paul. Do not think him lacking in humility. If humility is having an appropriate assessment on one’s gifts and an understanding of their source, then St. Bernard is spot on.

From Sermon 22.1-2

THE OINTMENTS OF THE BRIDE are as precious and exquisite as you have heard them portrayed, how matchless must those of the Bridegroom be! …. My opinion is that the Bridegroom has a varied and plentiful stock of perfumes and ointments. Some are solely for the pleasure of the bride who enjoys more intimate and familiar relations with him: others are wafted out to the maidens; and others again reach out to strangers afar off, so that "nothing can escape his heat."[1] For although "the Lord is good to all,"[2] he is especially kind to those who live in his house, and the more one is assimilated to him by a virtuous life and an upright will, the more sensitive I think he will be to the fragrance of the newer perfumes and the sweeter ointments. 

2. In matters of this kind, understanding can follow only where experience leads, and I shall be the last to intrude rashly where the bride alone may enter. The Bridegroom knows the delights with which the Holy Spirit charms the one he loves, the inspirations with which he reanimates her affections, the perfumes that enhance her loveliness. Let her be as a fountain entirely his own, unshared by any stranger, untouched by unworthy lips: for she is "a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain,"[3] though rivulets flow from it into the streets.[4] These I may use, though I want no trouble or ingratitude from anyone[5] if I offer what I draw from a public source. I shall even pay myself a mild compliment in this matter, for no small effort and fatigue are involved in going out day by day to draw waters from the open streams of the Scriptures and provide for the needs of each of you, so that without exerting yourselves you may have at hand spiritual waters for every occasion, for washing, for drinking, for cooking of foods. God's word is a water of the wisdom that saves;[6] when you drink it you are made clean, as the Lord himself points out: "You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you."[7] The word of God, winged with the Holy Spirit's fire, can cook the raw reflections of the sensual man, giving them a spiritual meaning that feeds the mind, and inspiring him to say: "My heart became hot within me, and as I meditated a fire burst forth."[8] 

 [1] Ps 19.7    [2] Ps 145:9   [3] Song 4:12    [4] Prov 5:16    [5] Gal 6:17    [6] Sir 15:3    [7] Jn 15:3

[8] Ps 39:3

CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER SEVEN - BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - Song of Songs II

Sermon 8 – THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE KISS OF THE KISS OF THE MOUTH

 

St Bernard does not lay out as a direct definition “the kiss of the kiss of the mouth.” But rather through a series of scriptural references and his unique understanding of them provides his exposition of “the kiss” and the “kiss of the kiss.”

From Sermon 8

8.1 “As I promised yesterday, and as you well remember, today we are to speak of the supreme kiss, that of the mouth. … I think I should begin by considering the higher truths, and it seems to me that a kiss past comprehension, beyond the experience of any mere creature, was designated by him who said: ‘“No one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him.”[1] …. Now, that mutual knowledge and love between him who begets and him who is begotten – what can it comprise if not a kiss that is utterly sweet, but utterly a mystery as well?

8.2 “For my part I am convinced that no creature, not even an angel, is permitted to comprehend this secret of divine love, so holy and so august. Does not Paul proclaim from his own experience that this is a peace which surpasses all understanding, even that of the angels?[2] And hence the bride, although otherwise so audacious, does not dare to say: ‘“Let him kiss me with his mouth,” for she knows that this is the prerogative of the Father alone. What she does ask for is something less: ‘“Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” Do you wish to see the newly chosen bride receiving this unprecedented kiss, given not by the mouth but by the kiss of the mouth? Then look at Jesus in the presence of his Apostles: "’He breathed on them,” according to St. John, “’and he said: ‘receive the Holy Spirit.’”[3] That favor, given to the newly chosen Church, was indeed a kiss. That? you say. That corporeal breathing? Oh, no, but rather the invisible Spirit, who is so bestowed in that breath of the Lord that he is understood to proceed from him equally as from the Father,[4] truly the kiss that is common both to him who kisses and to him who is kissed. Hence the bride is satisfied to receive the kiss of the Bridegroom, though she not be kissed with his mouth. For her it is no mean or contemptible thing to be kissed by the kiss because it is nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit. If, as is properly understood, The Father is he who kisses, the Son he who is kissed, then it cannot be wrong to see in the kiss the Holy Spirit, for he is the imperturbable peace of the Father and the Son, their unshakable bond, their undivided love, their indivisible unity."

CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER FOUR - THE WORKS OF BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Volume Two - Song of Songs I

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[1] Mt 11:27     [2] Phil 4:7     [3] Jn 20:22     [4] Jn 15:26      

Your name is oil poured out Song 1:2

from Sermon 18

“Your name is oil poured out.”[1] Of what truth of our interior life does the Holy Spirit wish to assure us by means of this text? He refers to the experience of a twofold operation, one by which he inwardly strengthens the virtues that lead to salvation, the other by which he outwardly endows us with serviceable gifts. The former benefit is of to ourselves, the latter to our neighbors.

…. And these operations of the Holy Spirit … are named from their method of functioning: we call them infusion and effusion. To which of them may we suitably apply the words: ”Your name is oil poured out”? Is it not to effusion?[2]

See how precious the graces that must be infused, so that when we venture to pour them out we may dispense them from a spirit that is filled rather than impoverished. We need first of all compunction of heart, then fervor of spirit; thirdly, the labor of penance; fourthly, works of charity; fifthly, zeal for prayer; sixthly leisure for contemplation; seventhly love in all its fullness. [6] All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,[3] accomplished by the process called infusion; and in so far as it has taken place those services called effusion can be truly and hence safely performed to the praise and the glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ,[4] who with the Father and the same Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for ever and ever. Amen.[5]

CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER FOUR - THE WORKS OF BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Volume Two - Song of Songs I

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[1] Song 1:2

[2] Sermon 18.1

[3] 1 Cor 12:11

[4] Phil 1:11

[5] Sermon 18.6

[6] Bold italics added

INTIMACIES OF THE LOVE OF GOD

 

St Bernard expounds on the metaphor of bridegroom and bride.

Sermon 7: INTIMACIES OF THE LOVE OF GOD: THEIR EXPRESSION IN PRAYER AND IN THE PSALMS

2. “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth,”[1] she said. Now who is this “she”? The bride. But why bride? Because she is the soul thirsting for God … the one who asks for a kiss, she is a lover. Among all the natural endowments of man love holds first place, especially when it is directed toward God, who is the source whence it comes. No sweeter names can be found to embody that sweet interflow of affections between the Word and the soul, than bridegroom and bride. Between these all things are equally shared, there are no selfish reservations, nothing that causes division. They share the same inheritance, the same table, the same home, the same marriage-bed, they are flesh of each other’s flesh. … Therefore if a love relationship is the special and outstanding characteristic of the bride and groom, it is not unfitting to call the soul that loves God a bride. Now one who asks for a kiss is in love. It is not for liberty that she asks, nor for an award, not for an inheritance nor even knowledge, but for a kiss. It   is obviously the request of a bride who is chaste, who breathes forth a love that is holy. A love whose ardor she cannot entirely disguise. For note how abruptly she bursts into speech. About to ask a great favor from a great personage, she does not resort as others do, to the arts of seduction, she makes no devious or fawning solicitations for the prize that she covets. There is no preamble, no attempt to conciliate favor. No, but with a spontaneous outburst from the abundance of her heart, direct even to the point of boldness, she says: "let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth."

3. Does not this seem to you to indicate that she wished to say: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you."[2]

Her love is surely chaste when it seeks the person whom she loves, and not some other thing of his. It is a holy love, the impulse of an upright spirit rather than of carnal desire. And it is an ardent love, blinded by its own access to the majesty of the beloved. For what are the facts? He is the one at whose glance the earth trembles,[3] and does she demand that he give her a kiss? Can she be possibly drunk? Absolutely drunk! And the reason? It seems most probable that when she uttered those passionate words she had just come out from the seller of wine;[4] afterword she boasts of having been there. David in his turn cried out to God concerning people such as the bride: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house; and you will make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure.”[5] How great this power of love: what great confidence and freedom of spirit! What is more manifest than that fear is driven out by perfect love![6]

 CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER FOUR - THE WORKS OF BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Volume Two - Song of Songs I

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[1] Song 1:1

[2] Ps.72:27

[3] Ps.104:32

[4] Song1:3; 2:4

[5] .Ps 36:9

[6] 1 Jn 4:18