Liber Secundus, Caput VII. Resumens priorem quaestionem, quis sit, diligentius expendit.
The Mirror of Hypocrisy
Bernard apologizes for rushing ahead and holds up a mirror to expose the grotesque mismatch of high rank with low virtue.
I may perhaps be faulted because, without first having sufficiently laid out the earlier parts, my pen somehow ran ahead into the second section, beginning to describe what sort of person you ought to be, even though it had not yet more fully expressed who you are. I believe a man placed on the highest summit blushed at being seen naked, and hurried to clothe himself with his own insignia. Without these, surely the more distinguished you appear, the more unsightly you are. Can the desolation of a city set on a mountain be hidden, or the smoke of a lamp that's been put out escape notice on its stand?✦ An ape on a rooftop, a foolish king sitting on a throne. And now hear my song — and granted, less sweet, but wholesome. It's a grotesque thing: the highest rank and the lowest spirit; the first seat and the lowest life; a boastful tongue and an idle hand; much talk and no fruit; a grave face and frivolous conduct; enormous authority and wavering stability. I've held up a mirror: let the foul face recognize itself in it. As for you, rejoice that yours is found to be unlike it.
The Humility of Self-Examination
The pope is urged to examine himself honestly, finding joy in a clear conscience but remaining humbled by the awareness of his own shortcomings.
Examine yourself too, then — lest perhaps, even if there's something you can rightly be pleased with about yourself, there's also something you ought to be displeased with, and it doesn't escape you. I want you to glory in the testimony of your conscience, but no less so that by that very testimony you may be humbled. A rare voice: "I am conscious of nothing against myself."✦ You walk more cautiously among good things if your faults don't lie hidden either. And so, as I said, know yourself — so that, amid the difficulties that are never lacking, you may enjoy the good of conscience; but even more, so that you may know what you still lack. For who lacks nothing? Everything is lacking to the man who thinks nothing is lacking to himself. What if you were the supreme Pontiff?
True Greatness Versus Worldly Rank
Bernard challenges the equation of ecclesial supremacy with personal perfection, reminding the pope that virtue precedes dignity.
Just because you're the highest pontiff, does that therefore make you the highest? You know very well what is lowest, if you think you're the highest. Who is truly the highest? The one who can't be added to. You're seriously mistaken if you consider yourself to be that person. God forbid. You're not the kind of person who accounts for dignities and virtues the way others do. For you, virtue was known through experience long before dignity ever came.
A Minister, Not a Monarch
Contrasting the pope with vainglorious rulers, Bernard defines supremacy as a comparative ministry rather than an absolute completion, urging continual spiritual striving.
Leave that attitude to the emperors and to others who didn't shrink from having divine honors paid to them — for example, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Antiochus, Herod. But you, consider that you are called supreme not by way of completion, but by comparison. And don't think I'm speaking of a comparison of merits, but of ministries. Let a person regard you this way: as a minister of Christ and — which I say without prejudice to anyone's holiness — clearly the highest among ministers. Otherwise, I would want you to strive toward the highest, not to think yourself highest, or to wish to be thought so before you actually are. For how are you making progress, if you're already satisfied with yourself? So let it not be a point of shame for you either to track down what you're lacking, or to admit what you're lacking.
The Sorrow of Holy Knowledge
The saint's knowledge of imperfection brings a medicinal sorrow that heals spiritual numbness, leading back to the original subject.
Speak with the voice of your predecessor: not because I have already received, or because I am now perfect; and again, I do not think I have comprehended it. This is the knowledge of the saints, and it’s far removed from the kind that puffs up. Whoever adds this knowledge adds sorrow as well, but no wise person ever escapes this sorrow. It is indeed a medicinal sorrow, through which that lethal numbness of a hard and impenitent soul is driven out. And so the wise one was able to say: And my sorrow is always before me. Now let’s return once more to the remaining points, if there are any, of the subject from which we turned aside a little while ago.
Read the original Latin
Arguar forsitan, quod non satis primis explicitis partibus, in secundas nescio quomodo stilus excurrerit, describere inchoans qualem te oporteat esse, cum necdum, quis sis, plenius expressisset. Credo erubescens in summo positum apice videri hominem nudum, festinavit induere insignibus suis. Absque his nempe eo deformior, quo illustrior pares. Nunquid potest abscondi civitatis supra montem positae desolatio, aut latere fumus lucernae exstinctae super candelabrum? Simia in tecto, rex fatuus in solio sedens. Et nunc audi canticum meum, et quidem minus suave, sed salutare. Monstruosa res gradus summus, et animus infimus: sedes prima, et vita ima; lingua magniloqua, et manus otiosa; sermo multus, et fructus nullus; vultus gravis, et actus levis; ingens auctoritas, et nutans stabilitas. Admovi speculum: foedus se in eo vultus agnoscat: tu tuum gaude dissimilem inveniri.
Inspice tamen et tu, ne forte, etsi sit unde merito placeas tibi, etiam in quo debeas displicere, non desit. Volo glorieris testimonio conscientiae tuae, sed non minus ut eodem ipso humilieris. Rara vox, Nihil mihi conscius sum. Cautior in bonis ambulas, si et mala non lateant. Quamobrem, ut dixi, noveris te, ut inter angustias quae non desunt, fruaris conscientiae bono; magis autem ut scias quid desit tibi. Nam cui non desit? Omnia illi desunt, qui nihil sibi desse putat. Quid si summus Pontifex sis?
Numquid quia summus Pontifex, ideo summus? Infimum noris esse, si summum putas. Quis summus? Cui addi non possit. Graviter erras, si te illum existimes. Absit. Non tu de illis es qui dignitates virtutes putant. Tibi ante experta virtus, quam dignitas fuit.
Augustis relinquito illam sententiam, aliisque, qui divinis coli honoribus non timuerunt: verbi gratia. Nabuchodonosor, Alexandro, Antiocho, Herodi. Tu vero considera non consummatione summum te dici, sed comparatione. Nec me putes comparationem dicere meritorum, sed ministeriorum. Sic te existimet homo, ut ministrum Christi, et (quod absque praejudicio sanctitatis cujuspiam dixerim) summum plane inter ministros. Alias niti te ad summam velim, non putare summum, aut velle putari antequam sis. Nam quomodo proficis, si jam sufficis tibi? Non sit proinde tibi aut pigrum vestigare quid desit, aut fateri quod desit verecundum.
Loquere et tu voce antecessoris tui, Non quod jam acceperim, aut jam perfectus sim: et rursum, Ego me non arbitror comprehendisse. Haec scientia sanctorum: haec longe ab illa quae inflat. Hanc qui apponit, apponit et dolorem: sed dolorem hunc nemo unquam sapiens subterfugit. Est quippe medicinalis dolor, per quem stupor ille lethalis animi duri et poenitentis extunditur. Et ideo sapiens, qui dicere potuit: Et dolor meus in conspectu meo semper. Nunc jam repetendae reliquiae, si quae sunt, loci illius, a quo paulo ante divertimus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.5.14-Matt.5.15 — You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Matt.5.15 — Neither do people light a lamp and put it under the basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
- ↩1Cor.4.4 — I am conscious of nothing against myself, but I am not thereby justified; the one who examines me is the Lord.
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