On Loving God
by St. Bernard of Clairvaux
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Chapter IV. Of those who find comfort in the recollection of God,
or are fittest for His love
But it will be well to note what class of people takes comfort in the thought
of God. Surely not that perverse and crooked generation to whom it was said,
'Woe unto you that are rich; for ye have received your consolation' (Luke
6:24). Rather, those who can say with truth, 'My soul refuseth comfort' (Ps.
77:2). For it is meet that those who are not satisfied by the present should be
sustained by the thought of the future, and that the contemplation of eternal
happiness should solace those who scorn to drink from the river of transitory
joys. That is the generation of them that seek the Lord, even of them that
seek, not their own, but the face of the God of Jacob. To them that long for
the presence of the living God, the thought of Him is sweetest itself: but
there is no satiety, rather an ever-increasing appetite, even as the Scripture
bears witness, 'they that eat me shall yet be hungry' (Ecclus. 24:21); and if
the one an-hungred spake, 'When I awake up after Thy likeness, I shall be
satisfied with it.' Yea, blessed even now are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they, and they only, shall be filled. Woe to you,
wicked and perverse generation; woe to you, foolish and abandoned people, who
hate Christ's memory, and dread His second Advent! Well may you fear, who will
not now seek deliverance from the snare of the hunter; because 'they that will
be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts' (I Tim. 6:9). In that day we shall not escape the dreadful sentence of
condemnation, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire' (Matt. 25:41).
O dreadful sentence indeed, O hard saying! How much harder to bear than that
other saying which we repeat daily in church, in memory of the Passion: 'Whoso
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life' (John 6:54). That
signifies, whoso honors My death and after My example mortifies his members
which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5) shall have eternal life, even as the
apostle says, 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him' (II Tim. 2:12). And
yet many even today recoil from these words and go away, saying by their action
if not with their lips, 'This is a hard saying; who can hear it?' (John 6:60).
'A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaveth not
steadfastly unto God' (Ps. 78:8), but chooseth rather to trust in uncertain
riches, it is disturbed at the very name of the Cross, and counts the memory of
the Passion intolerable. How can such sustain the burden of that fearful
sentence, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels'? 'On whomsoever that stone shall fall it will grind him
to powder' (Luke 20:18); but 'the generation of the faithful shall be blessed'
(Ps. 112:2), since, like the apostle, they labor that whether present or absent
they may be accepted of the Lord (II Cor. 5:9). At the last day they too shall
hear the Judge pronounce their award, 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world' (Matt. 25:34).
In that day those who set not their hearts aright will feel, too late, how easy
is Christ's yoke, to which they would not bend their necks and how light His
burden, in comparison with the pains they must then endure. O wretched slaves
of Mammon, you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ while you
trust in treasures laid up on earth: you cannot taste and see how gracious the
Lord is, while you are hungering for gold. If you have not rejoiced at the
thought of His coming, that day will be indeed a day of wrath to you.
But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the
contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the glory
of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, that is
covered with silver wings (Ps. 68:13), white with innocence and purity, she
reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; and above all
she longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of Thy saints, gleaming with
the radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers shall be like gold,
resplendent with the joy of Thy countenance.
Rightly then may she exult, 'His left hand is under my head and His right hand
doth embrace me.' The left hand signifies the memory of that matchless love,
which moved Him to lay down His life for His friends; and the right hand is the
Beatific Vision which He hath promised to His own, and the delight they have in
His presence. The Psalmist sings rapturously, 'At Thy right hand there is
pleasure for evermore' (Ps. 16:11): so we are warranted in explaining the right
hand as that divine and deifying joy of His presence.
Rightly too is that wondrous and ever-memorable love symbolized as His left
hand, upon which the Bride rests her head until iniquity be done away: for He
sustains the purpose of her mind, lest it should be turned aside to earthly,
carnal desires. For the flesh wars against the spirit: 'The corruptible body
presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that
museth upon many things' (Wisdom 9:15). What could result from the
contemplation of compassion so marvelous and so undeserved, favor so free and
so well attested, kindness so unexpected, clemency so unconquerable, grace so
amazing except that the soul should withdraw from all sinful affections, reject
all that is inconsistent with God's love, and yield herself wholly to heavenly
things? No wonder is it that the Bride, moved by the perfume of these unctions,
runs swiftly, all on fire with love, yet reckons herself as loving all too
little in return for the Bridegroom's love. And rightly, since it is no great
matter that a little dust should be all consumed with love of that Majesty
which loved her first and which revealed itself as wholly bent on saving her.
For 'God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). This
sets forth the Father's love. But 'He hath poured out His soul unto death,' was
written of the Son (Isa. 53:12). And of the Holy Spirit it is said, 'The
Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you' (John 14:26). It is plain, therefore, that God
loves us, and loves us with all His heart; for the Holy Trinity altogether
loves us, if we may venture so to speak of the infinite and incomprehensible
Godhead who is essentially one.
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