De loco Calvariae
Children of Praise and Scorn
Bernard contrasts the mocking children of Elisha with the holy children called to praise, showing how God perfects praise from the mouths of the humble.
One also goes out to the place of Calvary, where the true Elisha was mocked by senseless boys, and he insinuated eternal laughter against them, concerning whom he says: Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me (Isai.✦ 8:18). Good children, whom the Psalmist stirs up to praise by contrast with those malicious ones, saying: Praise the Lord, children; praise the name of the Lord (Psal. 112:1), so that in the mouth of holy infants and nursing ones praise might be perfected, which had failed from the mouth of the envious — those very ones of whom he complains in this way: I nourished and raised children, but they have despised me (Isai.✦ 1:2).
The Bald One Ascends the Cross
Christ ascends the cross without shame, enduring disgrace to rescue believers from everlasting reproach and restore them to glory.
So our Bald One ascended the cross, exposed to the world for the world's sake: with face revealed and forehead bared, making purification of sins, he did not blush at the disgrace of shameful and harsh death, nor did he shrink from its penalty, so as to rescue us from everlasting reproach and restore us to glory.
The Sunbeam That Cleanses
Bernard marvels that Christ does not blush, for he cleanses like a sunbeam that both dries and preserves purity, and God's wisdom reaches everywhere through its own purity.
No wonder. For what would he blush at, who washed us from sins — not indeed like water that washes away yet retains the filth, but like a ray of the sun that dries up and preserves purity? God's wisdom reaches everywhere, precisely because of its own purity.
Read the original Latin
Exitur etiam in Calvariae locum, ubi verus Elisaeus ab insensatis pueris irrisus, risum suis insinuavit aeternum, de quibus ait: Ecce ego, et pueri mei, quos mihi dedit Dominus (Isai. VIII, 18). Boni pueri, quos per contrarium illorum malignantium ad laudem excitat Psalmista, dicens, Laudate, pueri, Dominum, laudate nomen Domini (Psal. CXII, 1), quatenus in ore sanctorum infantium et lactentium perficeretur laus, quae ex ore defecerat invidorum, eorum utique, de quibus queritur ita: Filios enutrivi et exaltavi, ipsi autem spreverunt me (Isai. I, 2). Ascendit itaque crucem calvus noster, mundo pro mundo expositus: et revelata facie ac discooperta fronte purgationem peccatorum faciens, probrosae et austerae mortis tam non erubuit ignominiam, quam nec poenam exhorruit, ut nos opprobrio sempiterno eriperet, restitueret gloriae. Nec mirum. Quid enim erubesceret, qui ita lavit nos a peccatis, non quidem ut aqua diluens et retinens sordes, sed veluti solis radius desiccans et retinens puritatem?
Est quippe Dei sapientia ubique attingens propter munditiam suam.
Scripture echoes
Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae (In Praise of the New Knighthood) companion
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