Liber Quintus, Caput III. Ea quae supra nos sunt, Deum scilicet et Angelos, investigari opinione, fide, et intellectu.
The Spirit Reveals What Words Cannot
Bernard redirects the reader from the method of ascent to its goal, insisting that the things above are revealed by the Spirit rather than taught by speech, and that the true ascent is not toward the physical heavens but toward the spirit.
You've said, you remark, enough about the way one might ascend — but you still have something to say about where one should ascend to. You're mistaken if you hope for that — it's beyond words. Do you imagine I'm talking about what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man?✦ To us, he says, God has revealed it through his own Spirit.✦ So the things above — I won't see them taught, but they are revealed by the Spirit. But what speech cannot unfold, let consideration pursue; let prayer seek after it; let a pure life merit it and attain it. Indeed, having been warned about the things above, don't think you're being sent by me to gaze at the sun, the moon, the stars — not the firmament itself, not the waters that are above the heavens. For all these things, even though they are above us in location, are below us in the dignity of their nature — they are, after all, bodies.
God and Angels Above the Soul
The soul's portion is the spirit, and what lies above it are God and the holy angels, with God supreme by nature and angels by grace, while reason is the shared good between soul and angel.
Your portion is the spirit, by which you seek in vain for something higher that is not spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit is God, and so are the holy angels, and these are above you. But God is superior by nature, angels by grace. Indeed, the one best thing shared by you and an angel is reason; but God does not have some best thing of his own — he himself, one and whole, is the best.
Three Paths of Contemplation
God and the blessed spirits are to be traced by consideration through three paths—opinion, faith, and understanding—each resting on a different foundation and holding truth with a different degree of certainty.
He and the blessed spirits who are with him are to be traced by our consideration in three ways, as it were by just as many paths: by opinion, by faith, and by understanding. Of these, understanding rests on reason, faith on authority, and opinion defends itself by the bare likeness of truth alone. The latter two hold a certain truth: but faith holds it shut and folded up, while understanding holds it bare and manifest. Opinion, for its part, has no certainty, but instead seeks truth through what is merely probable rather than grasping it.
Guarding the Boundaries of Faith and Reason
Bernard warns against confusing opinion, faith, and understanding, showing that each has its proper domain and that true understanding holds both truth and the knowledge of truth, while faith is a certain foretaste of what is not yet revealed.
In these matters, confusion is entirely to be guarded against: we must not let faith settle on the uncertain territory of opinion, nor let opinion call back into question what faith has established as firm and secure. And this must be understood: opinion, if it makes a bold claim, is reckless; faith, if it hesitates, is weak; and understanding, if it tries to break in upon what has been sealed by faith, is reckoned a violator and an intruder into majesty. Many have mistaken their opinion for understanding and have gone astray. And so opinion can be thought of as understanding; but understanding cannot be thought of as opinion. How does this happen? Assuredly because this can be deceived, but that cannot; or if that could be deceived, it was not understanding, but opinion. True understanding holds with certainty not only the truth, but the knowledge of the truth. We can define each of these points as follows: faith is a willing and certain foretaste of a truth not yet laid open.
Faith, Understanding, and the Hope of Beatitude
Understanding is clear knowledge of invisible things, opinion holds what may be false as if it were true, and faith is distinguished from understanding by its mysterious hiddenness—yet in beatitude, what is now known by faith will be plainly seen.
Understanding is the clear and certain knowledge of anything invisible. Opinion is holding something as if it were true, without knowing that it may be false. So, as I've said, faith has no room for doubt — or if it does, it isn't faith, but opinion. So what distinguishes faith from understanding? Namely this: although faith holds nothing more uncertain than understanding does, it does hold something wrapped in mystery — which understanding does not. In the end, what you have understood isn't about what lies beyond your search — or if it is, then you haven't truly understood it. Yet there's nothing we'd rather know than the things we already know by faith. Nothing will be left over for beatitude, when the things that are now certain to us through faith will be equally bare and plain to see.
Read the original Latin
Dixisti, inquis, satis qua ascendatur: etiam quo ascendendum, dicere habes. Falleris, si id speras: ineffabile est. Tu me existimas loqui quod oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, et in cor hominis non ascendit? Nobis, inquit, revelavit Deus per Spiritum suum. Ergo quae supra sunt non videbo docentur, sed spiritu revelantur. Verum quod sermo non explicat, consideratio quaerat, oratio expetat, mereatur vita, puritas assequatur. Sane eorum admonitus quae supra sunt, non te existimes mitti a me suspicere solem, lunam, stellas, non ipsum firmamentum, non aquas quae super coelos sunt. Ista siquidem omnia, etsi supra loco, pretio infra sunt, et dignitate naturae: sunt enim corpora.
Tui portio spiritus est, quo superius quidpiam frustra quaeris, quod non sit spiritus. Porro spiritus est Deus, sunt et Angeli sancti, et hi supra te. Sed Deus natura, Angeli gratia superiores sunt. Unum siquidem tui et Angeli optimum, ratio est: Deus vero non sui aliquid optimum habet, unum optimum totus. Is, et qui cum eo sunt beati spiritus, tribus modis, veluti viis totidem, nostra sunt consideratione vestigandi, opinione, fide, intellectu. Quorum intellectus rationi innititur, fides auctoritati, opinio sola veri similitudine se tuetur. Habent illa duo certam veritatem: sed fides clausam et involutam, intelligentia nudam et manifestam: caeterum opinio certi nihil habens, verum per verisimilia quaerit potius, quam apprehendit.
Omnino in his cavenda confusio, ne aut incertum opinionis fides figat, aut quod firmum fixumque est fidei, opinio revocet in quaestionem. Et hoc sciendum, quia opinio, si habet assertionem, temeraria est: fides, si habet haesitationem, infirma est: item intellectus, si signata fidei tentet irrumpere, reputatur effractor, scrutator majestatis. Multi suam opinionem intellectum putaverunt, et erraverunt. Et quidem opinio potest putari intellectus; intellectus opinio non potest. Unde hoc accidit? Profecto quia haec falli potest, ille non potest: aut si falli potuit, intellectus non fuit, sed opinio. Verus nempe intellectus certam habet non modo veritatem, sed notitiam veritatis. Possumus singula haec ita definire, Fides est voluntaria quaedam et certa praelibatio necdum propalatae veritatis.
Intellectus est rei cujuscunque invisibilis certa et manifesta notitia. Opinio est quasi pro vero habere aliquid, quod falsum esse nescias. Ergo, ut dixi, fides ambiguum non habet; aut si habet, fides non est, sed opinio. Quid igitur distat ab intellectu? Nempe quod etsi non habet incertum non magis quam intellectus, habet tamen involuerum, quod non intellectus. Denique quod intellexisti, non est de eo quod ultra quaeras: aut si est, non intellexisti. Nil autem malumus scire, quam quae fide jam scimus. Nil supererit ad beatitudinem, cum quae jam certa sunt nobis fide, erunt aeque et nuda.
Scripture echoes
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