Liber Quintus, Caput IX. Uti in Deo simplex natura est in tribus personis, sic contra in Christo plures naturas in unam personam coalescere.
The Middle Unity of Christ
Bernard presents the unity of Christ as a beautiful middle ground between the unity of the Trinity and the unity of human nature, fitting for the mediator between God and man.
I confess I feel the same way about that unity to which, in keeping with the other, I gave the preeminent place among the rest. I say that in Christ the Word, the soul, and the flesh are one person without confusion of essences, and likewise that they remain without prejudice to personal unity in their own distinct number. Nor would I deny that this kind of unity also pertains to that other, by which soul and flesh are one man. For it was fitting that the sacrament ordained for man should accord more closely and more nearly with the constitution of man. It was also fitting to be congruous with the supreme unity, which is in God and is God, so that just as there three persons are one essence, so here by a kind of most fitting contrariety three essences are one person. Do you see how beautifully this unity is placed between both unities — in him, surely, who was established as mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus?✦ A most beautiful fittingness, I say, so that the saving sacrament might correspond by a fitting likeness to both — both to the one who saves, that is, and to the one who is saved. So this unity, standing as the middle ground between the two unities, is known to yield to the one and to be preeminent over the other: as much lower than the higher, so much higher than the lower.
The Unbreakable Bond of Divinity
The union of God and man in Christ is so profound that the two can be predicated of each other, and this divine bond surpasses even the soul-flesh union, remaining unbroken by death.
So great, finally, and so distinctly expressed is the force of union that this person carries within itself — the person in whom God and man are one Christ — that if you were to proclaim those two realities about each other, you would not be wrong: God as man, and man as God, truly and catholicly declaring it. But you don't similarly predicate flesh of soul, or soul of flesh — unless you're speaking most absurdly — even though in a similar way soul and flesh are one human being. No wonder, if the soul is not equally able, by that vital intention of its own — though not a weak one — to bind and attach the flesh to itself through its own affections, as divinity is able to bind to itself the human being who was predestined as Son of God in power: by a long chain and a strong bond, divine predestination — for it is from eternity. What is farther than eternity? What is more powerful than divinity? This is why not even death falling upon it could break this unity in any way, even though flesh and soul were separated from each other. And perhaps this is what the one who professed himself unworthy to untie the strap of this sandal perceived.✦
Read the original Latin
Idem me sentire fateor et de illa unitate cui secundum ab ista inter caetera Una honorem dedi. Dico in Christo Verbum, animam, et carnem, sine confusione essentiarum unam esse personam, et item absque praejudicio personalis unitatatis in sua numerositate manere. Nec negaverim hanc ad illud quoque genus unitatis pertinere, qua anima, et caro unus est homo. Decuit quippe familiarius similiusque cum hominis convenire constitutione, quod pro homine constitutum est sacramentum. Decuit et cum summa, quae in Deo est et Deus est, unitate congruere, ut quomodo ibi tres personae una essentia; ita hic convenientissima quadam contrarietate tres essentiae sint una persona. Videsne pulchre inter utramque unitatem hanc collocari; in eo utique qui constitutus est mediator Dei hominisque homo Christus Jesus? Pulcherrima, inquam, convenientia, ut salutare sacramentum congrua quadam similitudine ambobus respondeat, et salvanti videlicet et salvato. Ita haec unitas duarum consistens media unitatum, alteri succumbere, alteri praeeminere cognoscitur; quantum superiore inferior, tantum inferiore superior.
Tantam denique, tamque expressam unionis vim in se praefert ea persona, in qua Deus et homo unus est Christus; ut si duo illa de se invicem praedices, non erraveris, Deum videlicet hominem, et hominem Deum vere catholiceque pronuntians. Non autem similiter vel carnem de anima, vel animam de carne, nisi absurdissime, praedicas, etsi similiter anima et caro unus sit homo. Nec mirum, si non aeque potis anima sit sua illa vitali, etsi non parum valida, intentione connectere, atque suis affectibus astringere sibi carnem, ut sibi divinitas hominem illum, qui praedestinatus est filius Dei in virtute, Longa catena et fortis ad stringendum, divina praedestinatio: ab aeterno est enim. Quid longius aeternitate? Quid divinitate potentius? Inde est quod nec morte incidente ullatenus intercidi haec unitas potuit, etsi carne et anima ab invicem separatis. Et fortassis hoc sensit ille, qui se indignum professus est solvere corrigiam calceamenti hujus.
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