Liber Quintus, Caput X. Parabola, quae est apud Matthaeum de tribus satis, Christi personae accommodatur.
The Leaven of Faith
Bernard applies the Gospel parable of the leaven to the union of Word, soul, and flesh in Christ, seeing Mary's faith as the leaven that bound them together.
But those three measures of seed from the Gospel, mixed and leavened into one loaf, if anyone says they pertain to these three, it won't seem unfitting for me to say so. How well that woman leavened it, so that not even the division made between flesh and soul could separate the Word from either flesh or soul! And the inseparable unity remained even in separation. For the separation that happened in part could not prescribe anything over the unity that remained in all three. Whether joined or separated into two, the personal unity persevered in the three. Equally, one Christ, one person, the Word, soul, and flesh, endured even in the dead man. In the womb of the Virgin, as I think, this mixing and leavening took place: and the woman who mixed and leavened it. For I would say that the leaven is not undeservedly the faith of Mary.
Blessed Is She Who Believed
Mary's blessedness in believing is affirmed, and the fulfillment of the Lord's words guarantees the permanent unity of the one mediator in both death and life.
Clearly she is blessed, the one who believed, because everything the Lord said to her has been fulfilled in her.✦ These things would not have been fulfilled if the whole had not been leavened according to the word of the Lord, and leavened forever, preserving for us, in death just as in life, one and whole mediator between God and humanity — the man Christ Jesus, together with his own deity.✦
New, Ancient, Eternal
The three components of Christ — soul, flesh, and Word — are distinguished as new, ancient, and eternal, and this threefold pattern is shown to correspond to the believer's re-creation, liberation, and glorification.
In this remarkable Sacrament, consider the steps arranged according to the number of those who sow — a striking and most fitting distinction — new, ancient, eternal. New: the soul, believed to have been created from nothing when it was infused; ancient: the flesh, known to have been passed down from the first of humankind, that is, from Adam; eternal: the Word, affirmed with undoubted truth to have been begotten coeternal with the eternal Father. And in these three, if you consider carefully, there is a kind of divine power: that something was made from nothing, something new from something old, and something eternal and blessed from something condemned and dead. What does this have to do with our salvation? Very much, in every way. First of all: because we, who had been reduced to nothing by sin, have been, as it were, created again through this, so that we might be a beginning of his creation. Second, that from the old slavery we have been transferred into the freedom of the children of God, walking in newness of life.✦ Finally, that from the power of darkness we have been called into the kingdom of eternal glory, where he has already seated us in Christ.✦✦
A Rod from the Root of Jesse
Those who deny Christ's flesh was taken from the Virgin are refuted by Isaiah's prophecy of the rod and flower from Jesse's root, which shows the flesh's ancient origin.
Let those who try to separate Christ's flesh from us be strangers to us — those who impiously claim it was newly created in the Virgin, and not taken from the Virgin. Beautifully does the prophetic spirit anticipate this claim — or rather, this blasphemy of the impious — long beforehand, saying: A rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will ascend from his root.✦1 He could have said, 'And flower from the rod'; but he preferred 'from the root,' to show that the flower drew its origin from the same source as the rod. Therefore the flesh taken from the Virgin, from whom the Virgin was born, was not new in the Virgin, since she came forth from the root.
Read the original Latin
Sed et illa tria sata de Evangelio, mista et fermentata in panem unum, si quis ad haec tria dixerit pertinere, non incongrue id mihi facere videbitur. Quam bene ea mulier fermentavit, ut nec divisione quidem facta carnis et animae, a carne vel anima Verbum divideretur! Mansit et in separatione inseparabilis unitas. Nec enim quae ex parte contigit separatio, potuit unitati praescribere, permanenti in totis tribus. Sive conjunctis, sive disjunctis duobus, nihilominus perseveravit in tribus unitas personalis. Aeque unus Christus unaque persona, Verbum, anima, et caro, etiam mortuo homine perduravit. In utero Virginis, ut sentio ego, commistio haec et fermentatio facta est: et ipsa mulier quae miscuit, et fermentavit. Nam fermentum non immerito fortasse dixerim fidem Mariae.
Plane beata, quae credidit, quoniam perfecta sunt in ea, quae dicta sunt ei a Domino. Perfecta autem non essent, si quominus juxta verbum Domini esset fermentatum totum, et perpetuo fermentatum, servans nobis tam in morte, quam in vita pariter unum atque integrum mediatorem Dei ei hominum cum sua deitate, hominem Christum Jesum.
Advertere est in hoc admirabili sacramento juxta numerum satorum, mirae et decentissimae distinctionis gradus, novum, antiquum, aeternum. Novum, animam, quae de nihilo tunc creata creditur, cum infusa: antiquum, carnem, quae a primo usque hominum, id est ex Adam, traducta cognoscitur: aeternum, verbum, quod ab aeterno Patre coaeternum illi genitum indubitata veritate asseritur. Et in his triplex, si diligenter advertas, divinae potentiae genus, quod factum sit de nihilo aliquid, de vetusto novum, aeternum beatumque de damnato et mortuo. Quid hoc ad nostram salutem? Multum per omnem modum. Primum quidem, quod peccato redacti in nihilum, per hoc quodammodo iterato creati sumus, ut simus initium aliquod creaturae ejus. Deinde quod ex vetusta servitute in libertatem filiorum Dei translati, in novitate spiritus ambulantes. Postremo, quod de potestate tenebrarum vocati ad regnum claritatis aeternae, in quo jam et consedere nos fecit in Christo.
Alieni sint a nobis, qui Christi a nobis carnem alienare conantur, novam creatam in Virgine, et non de Virgine sumptam, impie asserentes. Pulchre propheticus spiritus longe ante occurrit huic sententiae, imo blasphemiae impiorum: Egredietur, inquiens, virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet. Dixisse poterat, Et flos de virga; sed maluit, de radice: ut unde virgam, inde florem duxisse originem demonstraret. Inde igitur sumpta caro, unde orta Virgo: nec nova in Virgine, quae prodiit ex radice.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.11.27-Luke.11.28 — And it came about that while he was saying these things, a certain woman from the crowd lifted up her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you nursed." Luke.11.28 — But he said, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.'
- ↩1Tim.2.5 — For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus,
- ↩Rom.6.4 — Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.
- ↩Col.1.13 — He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves.
- ↩Eph.2.6 — and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
- ↩Isa.11.1 — A shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
Notes
- 1 ↩The quoted prophetic text echoes Isaiah 11:1; final source resolution belongs to a later stage.
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