Liber Secundus, Caput V. Alterum membrum considerationis sui proponit: nempe, Quis sit, et unde.
Know Yourself and Your Origin
Bernard calls the reader to consider their identity and origin, urging them not to diminish the dignity of their monastic profession.
Now you must pay attention to who you are and what you were made from. Although what I said about what you were made from — I think I should pass over that and leave it rather to your own recognition. But this I say is unworthy of you: to act as though less than perfect about so great a perfection you have taken on. Why wouldn't you be ashamed to be found the least among great things, you who remember that you once stood out as great among the least? You haven't forgotten your first profession: what was withdrawn from your hand has not slipped from your mind, nor even from your heart's attachment. It will not be useless to keep it before your eyes in each of your commands, judgments, and institutions. This consideration makes you a despiser of honor even in the midst of honor itself. And that is no small thing.
Scripture's Shield Against Honor
A chain of scriptural reflections shows that honor is fleeting and God both raises and humbles, so the reader must remember their lowly state.
Don't let it leave your heart: it's a shield for you, even against that arrow, "When a person was in honor, they did not understand."✦ So say to yourself: "I was an outcast in the house of my God."✦ What is this—to be raised above nations and kingdoms from a poor and outcast state? Who am I, or what is my father's house, that I should sit in the heights, more exalted?✦✦ Surely the one who said to me, "Friend, come up higher," trusted that I would be a friend.✦ If I'm found lacking, it certainly isn't a good idea. The one who raised you up can also cast you down.✦ A late complaint: "Because you lifted me up, you struck me down."✦
Anxiety, Friendship, and the Resolve to Persevere
High position brings greater anxiety rather than cause for boasting, and the reader is urged to gird themselves lest they end in shame.
There's no reason for loftiness to flatter itself where the anxiety is greater. That one strains toward danger; this one tests a friend. Let's gird ourselves for this, if we don't wish at last to hold the last place with shame.
Read the original Latin
Nunc quis sis, et de quo sis factus, advertendum. Quanquam quod dixi, de quo, id mihi praetereundum putem, tuae potius relinquendum agnitioni. Illud dico indignum tibi, citra perfectum agere de tanta assumpta perfectione. Quidni erubescas minimus inveniri in magnis, qui te recordaris magnum in minimis exstitisse? Non es oblitus primae professionis: non excidit menti quae subducta est manui, sed ne affectui quidem. Ipsam ad singula tua imperia, judicia, instituta, habere prae oculis non erit inutile. Haec te consideratio facit honoris contemptorem in honore ipso. Atque id magnum.
Non recedat a pectore: clypeus est tibi vel a sagitta illa, Homo cum in honore esset, non intellexit. Loquere ergo tibi: Abjectus eram in domo Dei mei. Quale est hoc, de paupere et abjecto levari super gentes et regna? Quis ego, aut quae domus patris mei, ut sedeam excelsis sublimior? Sane qui dixit mihi: Amice, ascende superius, amicum fore fidit. Si minus inveniar, non expedit quidem. Qui elevavit, et dejicere potest. Sera querela: Quoniam elevans allisisti me.
Non est quod blandiatur celsitudo, ubi sollicitudo major. Illa discrimen intendit, haec amicum probat. Huic accingamur, si nolumus tandem cum rubore novissimum locum tenere.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.49.12 — Their inward thought is that their houses are forever, their dwelling places for generation after generation; they have called out over the lands by their own names.
- ↩Ps.84.10 — Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed.
- ↩2Sam.7.18;1Chr.17.16 — Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, 'Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?' 1Chr.17.16 — Then King David came and sat before the LORD, and said, 'Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?'
- ↩Ps.113.7-Ps.113.8 — He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap Ps.113.8 — who seats her with the nobles, with the nobles of his people
- ↩Luke.14.10 — But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will have glory before all who are reclining at table with you.
- ↩1Sam.2.7;Ps.75.7 — The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, and also lifts up. Ps.75.7 — For not from the east or from the west, and not from the wilderness comes the lifting up;
- ↩1Sam.2.7 — The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, and also lifts up.
De consideratione (On Consideration) companion
Make consideration a daily appointment
Bernard told Eugene to set aside time every day. Chosen Portion holds that time for you, free.
Bernard's core prescription — a fixed daily time reserved for examining the soul — is exactly the habit Chosen Portion installs with its daily devotional portion.
- One 10-minute daily portion for self-examination and prayer
- Reflection prompts drawn from historic texts, not improvised journaling
- A visible streak that protects the daily interval Bernard insisted on