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Chapter 34BernC.1.34

Liber Quartus, Caput III. De vestium pompa resecanda, et zelo Pontifici necessario.

A Good Jealousy

Bernard confronts the addressee with pastoral urgency, warning that wolves have infiltrated the flock and calling for discernment in shepherding them.

What about you, then? Are you still waking up to those who have surrounded you with the snares of death?✦ I beg you, bear with me for a little while, and support me. Rather, grant pardon—not so much because I speak these things rashly, as because I speak them timidly.1 I am jealous for you with a good jealousy, and would that it were as vehement as it is useful.✦ I know where you dwell; the faithless and the subverters are with you.✦ They are wolves, not sheep; yet you are their shepherd. It would be a useful reflection, by which you might perhaps discover how—if it can be done—you should convert them, lest they subvert you.

Remember Peter, Not Constantine

The apostolic simplicity of Peter is contrasted with the worldly pomp of Constantine, and the reader is urged to tolerate present splendor without desiring it.

Why do we doubt that they can turn back into the sheep they once were, when they were able to turn from sheep into wolves? Here, here, I will not spare you — so that God may spare you. A shepherd — deny that you are one to this people, at least, or show yourself to be one. You will not deny it — lest the one whose seat you hold disown you as his heir. This is Peter, who is never known to have gone out adorned with jewels or with silks, not covered in gold, not carried on a white horse, not surrounded by soldiers, not hedged in by attendants pressing close with noise. Without all this, he still believed the saving commandment could be fully fulfilled: If you love me, feed my sheep.✦ In these things you have succeeded — not Peter, but Constantine. My counsel: tolerate these things for the time being, but do not pursue them as though they were owed to you.

The Work of a Shepherd

Even in purple and gold, the reader must not shrink from pastoral labor, because preaching the Gospel is the true work of a shepherd.

Rouse yourself, rather, to those duties you know you owe. Even if you walk in purple, even if you are adorned with gold, there is still no reason to shrink from the labor and care of pastoral ministry, as heir of the Shepherd: there is no reason to be ashamed of the Gospel. Even so, if you willingly preach the good news, there is honor in it for you as well, among the apostles. To preach the Gospel is to feed the flock. Do the work of an evangelist, and you will have fulfilled the work of a shepherd.

The Two Swords

Bernard warns against the sword of violence and explains that both spiritual and material swords belong to the Church, each in its proper order.

You warn me to feed dragons and scorpions, not sheep. For this reason, I say, approach them more boldly, but with the word, not with the sword. Why do you try to take up the sword again, which you were once commanded to put back in its sheath? However, whoever denies your sword does not seem to me to pay sufficient attention to the word of the Lord saying: 'Put your sword back into its sheath.' Therefore, yours and he himself, perhaps by your nod, is to be drawn out, though not by your hand. Otherwise, if it did not pertain to you in any way, then, when the apostles said, 'Look, here are two swords,' the Lord would not have answered, 'It is enough,' but rather, 'It is too much.' Both swords, therefore, belong to the Church: the spiritual sword and the material one; the former indeed for the Church, the latter to be drawn out from the Church: the one of the priest, the other of the soldier, but truly at the nod of the priest and by the command of the emperor. And about this another time.

Strike for Salvation

The pastor is urged to wield the sword of spiritual correction and bring saving wounds to as many as possible.

Now then, seize the one entrusted to you for striking; and wounds for salvation — if not all, if not even many, at least as many as you can reach.

Cry Out, Do Not Stop

Citing Paul and Isaiah, Bernard insists that the preacher must urgently rebuke sin without restraint, even if it seems excessive.

I'm not, you say, better than my ancestors. Which of them, when their own house provoked God — I'm not saying He listened, but that He didn't laugh them off? So press on all the more, in case they might listen and relent: press on even against those who resist. By saying this, I may perhaps be thought excessive. Isn't that our own cry: Be urgent in season and out of season?✦ If you dare, call this one excessive too. The prophet is commanded: Cry out, do not stop.✦ To whom, if not to the wicked and to sinners?

A Hard Brow Against a Hard Brow

Even a stubborn people remains God's people, and the pastor must resist despair, trusting in God's power and hardening his brow against resistance.

Announce, he says, to my people their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins.2 Watch closely, and observe that the wicked are being called the people of the Lord.3 Think about these things the same way. Even if they are wicked, even if they are unjust, see that you do not listen: what you did not do to one of the least of mine, you did not do to me.✦4 I confess that this people has been, up to now, of a hard brow and an untamed heart; but whether also untamable, I don't know — you can clearly know from what source.5 It may well be that which has not yet been. If you doubt; but with God no word will be impossible.✦6 If they are of a hard brow, you harden yours against theirs as well.✦7

When One City Is Not Enough

If a stubborn people will not yield, the pastor can at last clear his conscience and carry the Gospel to other cities, trading one city for the whole world.

Nothing is so hard that it won't yield to something harder. The Lord said to the prophet: I have made your forehead harder than their foreheads.✦ There's one thing that clears you, if you've dealt with that stubborn people, so that you can say: My people, what more was I obliged to do for you than I have done?✦ If you've done this, and still made no headway, there's at last something you can do, and something you can say: leave the land of the Chaldeans, and say, I must preach the good news to other cities as well.✦✦ I don't think you'll regret the exile, when it's a matter of trading one city for the whole world.

Read the original Latin

Quid ergo tu? evigilasne adhuc ad istos, qui circumdederunt te laqueis mortis? Quaeso, sustine paulisper, et supporta me. Imo da veniam, non tam temere, quam timide haec loquenti. Aemulor te aemulatione bona, et utinam quam vehementi, tam utili. Scio ubi habitas; increduli et subversores sunt tecum. Lupi, non oves sunt: talium tamen tu pastor. Utilis consideratio, qua forte inveneris, quomodo, si fieri possit, convertas eos, ne ipsi subvertant te.

Quid diffidimus posse reverti in oves, e quibus verti in lupos potuerunt? Hic, hic, non parco tibi, ut parcat Deus. Pastorem te populo huic certe aut nega, aut exhibe. Non negabis: ne cujus sedem tenes, te neget haeredem. Petrus hic est, qui nescitur processisse aliquando vel gemmis ornatus, vel sericis; non tectus auro, non vectus equo albo, nec stipatus milite, nec circumstrepentibus septus ministris. Absque his tamen credidit satis posse impleri salutare mandatum: Si amas me, pasce oves meas. In his successisti, non Petro, sed Constantino. Consulo toleranda pro tempore, non affectanda pro debito.

Ad ea te potius incito, quorum te scio debitorem. Etsi purpuratus, etsi deauratus incedens, non est tamen quod horreas operam curamve pastoralem, Pastoris haeres: non est quod erubescas Evangelium. Quanquam si volens evangelizes, inter Apostolos quidem etiam gloria est tibi. Evangelizare pascere est. Fac opus evangelistae, et pastoris opus implesti.

Dracones, inquis, me mones pascere, et scorpiones, non oves. Propter hoc, inquam, magis aggredere eos, sed verbo, non ferro. Quid tu denuo usurpare gladium tentes, quem semel jussus es reponere in vaginam? Quem tamen qui tuum negat, non satis mihi videtur attendere verbum Domini dicentis sic: Converte gladium tuum in vaginam. Tuus ergo et ipse, tuo forsitan nutu, etsi non tua manu evaginandus. Alioquin si nullo modo ad te pertineret et is, dicentibus Apostolis, Ecce gladii duo hic; non respondisset Dominus, Satis est; sed, Nimis est. Uterque ergo Ecclesiae et spiritualis scilicet gladius, et materialis; sed is quidem pro Ecclesia, ille vero et ab Ecclesia exserendus: ille sacerdotis, is militis manu, sed sane ad nutum sacerdotis, et jussum imperatoris. Et de hoc alias.

Nunc vero arripe, qui tibi ad feriendum creditus est; et vulnera ad salutem, si non omnes, si non vel multos, certe quos possis.

Non sum, inquis, melior quam patres mei. Quem illorum domus exasperans, non dico, audivit, sed non irrisit? Ideo tu insiste magis, si forte audiant, et quiescant: insiste et resistentibus. Dicendo haec, forte nimius dicar. Num nostra illa vox: Insta opportune, importune? Hunc, si audes, nimium appellato. Prophetae praecipitur: Clama, ne cesses. Ad quos, nisi ad sceleratos et peccatores?

Annuntia, inquit, populo meo scelera eorum, et domui Jacob peccata eorum. Prudenter adverte et sceleratos perhiberi, et populum Domini. Puta de his idem. Etsi scelerati, etsi iniqui, vide ne audias: Quod uni ex minimis meis non fecisti, nec mihi fecisti. Fateor populum istum exstitisse usque adhuc dura fronte, et indomito corde; sed utrumne etiam indomabili, nescio unde liquido scire possis. Potest fore, quod necdum fuit. Si diffidis tu; sed apud Deum non erit impossibile omne verbum. Si dura fronte sunt, durato et tu e contra tuam.

Nil tam durum, quod duriori non cedat. Dominus ad prophetam: Dedi frontem tuam duriorem frontibus eorum. Unum est quod te absolvit, si egisti cum populo illo, ut possis dicere: Popule meus, quid tibi debui facere, et non feci? Si sic fecisti, nec profecisti; est demum quod facias, et quod dicas: exi de Hur Chaldaeorum, et dicito, Quia oportet me et aliis civitatibus evangelizare. Puto nec poenitebit exsilii, orbe pro urbe commutato.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.18.5 — The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of utter destruction terrified me.
  2. ↩2Cor.11.2 — For I am jealous for you with a jealousy of God, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
  3. ↩Rev.2.13 — I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold fast to my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
  4. ↩John.21.17 — He said to him the third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, 'Do you love me?' and he said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep.'
  5. ↩2Tim.4.2 — Proclaim the word; be ready whether the time is favorable or not; correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and instruction.
  6. ↩Isa.58.1 — Cry out with a full throat; do not hold back. Like a trumpet, lift up your voice. Declare to my people their rebellion, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
  7. ↩Matt.25.40 — And the King will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'
  8. ↩Luke.1.37 — For nothing will be impossible with God.
  9. ↩Ezek.3.7-Ezek.3.9 — But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they are not willing to listen to me; for all the house of Israel are hard of forehead and hard of heart. Ezek.3.8 — Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Ezek.3.9 — Like a flint harder than rock I have made your forehead; do not fear them, and do not be dismayed before them, for they are a rebellious house.
  10. ↩Ezek.3.8-Ezek.3.9 — Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Ezek.3.9 — Like a flint harder than rock I have made your forehead; do not fear them, and do not be dismayed before them, for they are a rebellious house.
  11. ↩Isa.5.3-Isa.5.4 — And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray, between me and my vineyard. Isa.5.4 — What more was there to do for my vineyard, and I did not do it in it? Why did I expect it to produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes?
  12. ↩Gen.11.31;Acts.7.4 — Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Acts.7.4 — Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God moved him into this land in which you now live.
  13. ↩Luke.4.43 — But he said to them, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, for I was sent for this purpose."

Notes

  1. 1 ↩da veniam can mean 'grant pardon' or 'give leave'; the contrast between temere and timide favors reading this as a request for forbearance toward the speaker's timidity.
  2. 2 ↩Candidate quotation/echo: Isaiah 1:14–15 or similar prophetic commission; 'populo meo' and 'domui Jacob' are formulaic address to Israel. Final resolution deferred to Moses check.
  3. 3 ↩The syntax is compressed: 'adverte et sceleratos perhiberi, et populum Domini' — the sense is that the wicked are called 'the people of the Lord' (a scandalous irony), not two separate commands.
  4. 4 ↩Candidate echo of Matthew 25:40/45 ('quod uni ex minimis meis non fecisti') — final resolution deferred.
  5. 5 ↩The sentence is compressed and somewhat elliptical: 'nescio unde liquido scire possis' — the sense is that the speaker doesn't know whether the people is truly untamable, but the addressee can know clearly from some source (perhaps Scripture or experience). The phrasing is deliberately terse.
  6. 6 ↩Candidate echo of Luke 1:37 ('apud Deum non erit impossibile omne verbum') — final resolution deferred.
  7. 7 ↩The imperative 'durato' is rare and compressed: the sense is a call to resolute opposition — if they are stubborn, you be stubborn against them in return. The reflexive 'tuam' (sc. frontem) is implied.

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
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →