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Chapter 24SermC.1.24

Sermo 24

Return to Peace and Purpose

Bernard consoles the community with the return of peace after schism and renews his commitment to their spiritual progress and to resuming the Song of Songs sermons.

Now at last, brothers, a third time, a more merciful eye looked back upon our return from the City, and a calmer countenance at last smiled on us from above. The Leonine fury has died down, malice has reached its end, the Church has received peace. The wicked one who had troubled her through a dreadful schism for nearly eight years has been brought to nothing in God's sight. Surely I will not have been restored to you, after such great dangers, for nothing? I am given over to your desires, I am preparing myself for your progress: it is by your merits that I live, and it is for your zeal and your salvation that I want to live. And what you want me to pursue further in the Song of Songs, a work long since begun, I gladly accept, and I judge it better to mend the sermon that was broken off than to start something new. But I'm afraid that a mind out of practice from that length of time, and stretched thin by long preoccupation, may not rise to what is needed — not only for such varied matters, but even for material so far beneath the dignity this subject demands. But if what I have, I give to you — and through my faithful service, God will be able to give even what I do not have, so that I may give it. If not — well, let my ability be blamed, not my will.

The Text and Its Speakers

Bernard introduces the Song verse 'The upright love you,' identifies the speakers as the holy daughters of Jerusalem, and distinguishes them from envious, murmuring women.

The place where we must begin, unless I'm mistaken, is this: The upright love you.✦ Before we begin to unpack this, let's look at what it means, whose words these are, and who exactly is speaking here. Because what's being asked of us is something the original author never actually says. And perhaps it's better if we leave this to the younger members, so they can add their own words to it as well. After all, when they had said, 'We will exult and rejoice in you, remembering your breasts above wine' — and there's no doubt they were speaking to the mother — they continue their discourse and add this as well: 'The upright love you.'✦ I think this was directed at certain women among their number who didn't share the same outlook, even though they seemed to be running the same race — women who were looking out for their own interests and not walking simply or sincerely, but envying the mother's special position of honor and looking for an occasion to murmur against her, precisely because she alone had entered the wine cellars.1 This is nothing other than what the Apostle says: 'Among false brethren there is danger.'✦ They are the very ones who constantly reproach her, and she is compelled to defend herself against them, answering them this way: 'I am dark but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem.'✦

A Word of Consolation for the Bride

The upright console the bride by affirming that the upright love her, and the gentle should rejoice even amid unjust blame.

And so, on account of those who grumble and speak against her, it is said by those who are good, who are guileless, who are humble and gentle — by them, I say, it is said for the sake of consoling the bride: The upright love you.✦ Don't let the unjust blame of these blasphemous women trouble you, they say, since it is well established that the upright love you.✦ Truly a good consolation, when we are reviled by the wicked while doing good, if the upright love us. Altogether sufficient against the unjust mouth of those who speak is the good opinion of the upright, together with the testimony of conscience. My soul will be praised in the Lord; let the gentle hear, and let them rejoice.✦ Let the gentle rejoice, he says.✦ May I please the gentle, and calmly hear whatever malice of the ruined may wish to hurl against me.

The Fault-Finding Religious

Bernard describes how some religious women watch the bride not to imitate her but to find fault, forming hateful alliances like Herod and Pilate.

So I think the words 'The upright love you' are applied in this sense. And not unreasonably, I think: since nearly everywhere in a choir of young women you'll find those who carefully watch the Bride's actions, not to imitate her but to find fault.23 They're tormented by the good things of their elders but feed on their evil things. You'd see them walking apart, coming together and sitting side by side, then soon loosening their shameless tongues into hateful whispering. One is joined to another, and no breathing space passes among them — so great is their hunger to disparage, and to hear someone doing the disparaging.4 They enter into familiarity only to speak evil — people who agree with each other solely to stir up discord.5 They forge the most hostile friendships among themselves, and their hateful gathering is celebrated with a shared disposition of equal malice. Herod and Pilate once acted no differently — the Gospel tells us they became friends on that day, that is, on the day of the Lord's passion.✦

The Deadly Feast of Slander

Slanderers turn the Lord's Supper into the cup of demons, letting death enter through their windows, and are hated by God.

When people come together like this, it's not the Lord's Supper they're eating, but rather drinking and toasting with the cup of demons, while with their gossiping tongues they bring the poison of ruin into each other's ears, and gladly welcome the death that enters in.✦ So then, as the prophet says, death enters through our windows, since we itch with our ears and mouths as we strive to serve each other the deadly drink of slander.✦ May my soul have no part in the gathering of slanderers, because God hates them, as the Apostle says when God speaks: 'Detractors are hateful to God.'✦✦ God himself speaks this judgment in a psalm — listen to how he confirms it: 'Whoever slanders his neighbor, that person I will pursue,' he says.✦

How Slander Kills Love

Slander attacks love itself, spreads like a contagion, and can even be disguised under a false show of grief and modesty.

And no wonder — since this vice especially is known to attack and pursue more fiercely love itself, which is God, than all the rest, as you can also see: everyone who slanders first reveals himself as empty of love, and then what else does he intend by his slandering except that the person he slanders should come into hatred or contempt among those very people before whom he slanders him? Therefore the slanderous tongue strikes love in all who hear it, and as far as it can, it kills and utterly destroys — and not only among those present, but also among all the absent, to whom the word, flying, may by chance reach through those who are present. You see how easily and in a short time a rapidly spreading word can, through the wasting disease of this malice, infect a huge multitude of souls. Therefore the prophetic Spirit says of such people: 'Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, and their feet are swift to shed blood.'✦ Indeed, they are as swift as the word that runs so swiftly. One person speaks and utters only a single word; and yet that one word, in a single moment, while it infects the ears, kills the souls of a multitude of those listening. Since the heart, bitter with the gall of envy, can spread nothing but bitter things through the instrument of the tongue — as the Lord says: 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.'✦ And there are kinds of this pestilence: some people vomit out the poison of slander openly and irreverently, just as it comes to mind, while others try to cloak a conceived malice — which they cannot contain — with a color of feigned modesty.

The Cloak of Feigned Grief

Some disguise malice with mournful sighs and a false appearance of compassion, yet this cannot excuse detraction.

You might see deep sighs sent forth, and with a certain gravity and slowness, a mournful face, brows relaxed, and a voice of grief — and all the more persuasive a curse is believed to be by those who hear it, coming from a heart that suffers with the one it strikes rather than from malice. "I grieve greatly," one person says, "because I love him deeply, and I've never been able to correct him in this matter." And another person says: "I already knew about that matter concerning him quite well; but it would never have come to light through me." But since the matter has been exposed by someone else, I can't deny the truth: "I speak in grief—truly, that's how it is." And he adds: "What a great loss!" For in many other cases it may well hold good; but in this respect, to speak the truth, it can't be excused in the least.

Returning to the Upright

Bernard turns to define spiritual uprightness, created by the upright God and restored in the heart, not in the flesh.

With these few points mentioned against that most malicious vice, let's return to the order of our explanation, and let's show who the Upright are to be understood as in this context. For I don't think anyone of right understanding would consider those who love the bride to be upright according to the flesh. Therefore we must demonstrate the spiritual uprightness—that is, the uprightness of the mind and heart. It is the Spirit who speaks, comparing spiritual things with spiritual people.✦ Therefore, according to the mind, and not according to earthly and filthy matter, God made man upright. For he created him in his own image and likeness.✦ He himself, as you sing: The Lord our God is upright, and there is no iniquity in him.✦ Therefore, the upright God made man upright, like himself—that is, without iniquity, just as there is no iniquity in him.✦

Body and Soul in Uprightness

Wickedness belongs to the heart, not the flesh, and those who would be transformed into God's image must work in the spirit.

Furthermore, wickedness is a disease of the heart, not of the flesh—so through this you can know that God's likeness is to be preserved, or restored, in the spiritual part of you, not in thick, muddied matter. For the Spirit is God, and those who wish to become like him—or to persevere in that likeness—must enter into the heart and carry out this work in the spirit, where, beholding the glory of God with face unveiled, they are transformed into the same image from brightness to brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord.✦

A Crooked Soul in an Upright Body

It is unseemly to carry a crooked soul in an upright body; the soul should not live like swine when it was made for heavenly things.

Although God also gave man an upright bodily stature—perhaps so that this physical uprightness of the outer, cheaper created matter might remind the inner man, who was made in the image of God, to preserve his own spiritual uprightness, and so that the beauty of the clay might rebuke the soul's deformity.✦ For what's more unseemly than carrying a crooked soul in an upright body? It's perverse and foul for a clay vessel—which is what the body from the earth is—to have eyes looking upward, to gaze freely at the heavens, and to delight in the heavens' luminaries; while the spiritual and heavenly creature, on the contrary, drags its own eyes—that is, its inner senses and affections—downward into the earth; and what ought to have been nourished in the saffron gardens clings to the mud like one of the swine, and embraces filth.✦ Be ashamed, my soul, to have traded a divine likeness for a beastly one; be ashamed to wallow in the mire, you who are from heaven. Be ashamed, soul, says the body, when you consider me. Created upright and like your Creator, you also received me as a helper like yourself—certainly in keeping with the outlines of bodily uprightness.✦ Wherever you turn yourself, whether upward to God or downward to me (for no one has ever hated his own flesh), everywhere the sight of your own beauty meets you; everywhere, according to the state of your dignity, you have a familiar admonition from the teaching of wisdom.✦ Since I am retaining and preserving the privilege I received for your sake, how can you not be ashamed to have lost yours?

The Soul's Shame and Misuse

Such souls turn their advantages into shame and live in a human body as though unworthy of it.

Why does the Founder look with favor on his own likeness in you, now that it's been wiped away, since he carefully preserves and constantly presents yours in me for your benefit? Now you've turned every advantage that was owed to you from me into a source of shame for yourself; you misuse my service, you live in a human body as though you're unworthy of it — a brute and beastly spirit.

Friendship of the World

Worldly souls cannot love the bride because they are enemies of God; true uprightness is to seek the things above, uniting right thought and right action.

Souls of this kind, then, are warped, and they are unable to love the bride, because they are not friends of the bridegroom — since they belong to the world. Whoever, he says, wishes to be a friend of this world is made an enemy of God. Therefore, to seek and to savor the things that are above earth is the soul's crookedness; and conversely, to meditate on and desire the things that are on high is uprightness. And so that it may be made perfect, let it be defined by sense and by consent. What is right — I would say with reverence — is if you think rightly in all things and do not disagree in your actions. Faith and action should announce the invisible state of the soul. Judge what is right: if you have proven it catholic by faith and just by work. If not, you would not hesitate to judge it crooked.

Rightly Dividing Faith and Works

One must not be a righteous offerer but a crooked divider; faith without works is dead, and offering a dead gift dishonors God.

So here's what you've got: if you offer rightly and don't rightly divide, you've sinned. Whatever of these you offer, you offer rightly; but you don't rightly separate them from one another.6 Don't be a righteous offerer and a crooked divider. Why divide deed from faith? You divide unjustly, destroying your faith — for faith without works is dead.7 Are you offering a dead gift to God? For if a soul's very devotion is somehow the life of faith, what is faith that doesn't work out of love except a lifeless corpse?8 How well you honor God with a foul gift!

The Faith-Killer and Cain

Divided devotion is a kind of faith-killing and inner discord that mirrors Cain's fratricide.

Are you doing well, you killer of your own faith, by pleasing it? How can there be a peace offering where there is such savage discord? It's no wonder Cain rose against his brother — he had already killed his own faith. Why are you surprised, O Cain, if the one who despises you doesn't look back at what is yours? And it's no wonder if the one so divided within himself doesn't look back at you. If you give your hand to devotion, why give your heart to spite? You don't reconcile God to yourself — at odds with yourself as you are — you don't please him, but you sin; and not yet indeed by bearing things impiously, but still by dividing what you shouldn't. Even if you're not yet a brother-killer, you're already held to be a faith-killer.

Dead Faith and Divided Love

Without love, faith is dead, and the division among brothers is cruel.

Are you upright? Or when you stretch out your hand to God, whose heart drags down to the ground—is it envy and brotherly hatred? How are you upright, whose faith is dead, whose work is death, whose devotion is nothing, whose bitterness is great? There was indeed faith in the one offering, but not love in the faith; the offering was upright, but the division was cruel.

Faith Made Alive by Love

Faith must be brought to life by love and proven by works; to claim Christ while envying others is to deny him by one's actions.

The death of faith is the separation of love. Do you believe in Christ? Do the works of Christ, so that your faith may come alive. Let love bring your faith to life; let action prove it. A work that faith in heavenly things lifts up won't be bent toward earthly things. If you say you abide in Christ, you must walk as he walked. But if you seek your own glory, you envy the one who is winning, tear down the one who is absent, and strike back at the one who hurts you: Christ didn't do this. You claim to know God, but your actions deny him.

Lip-Service and the Weight of Sin

To give one's tongue to Christ but one's soul to the devil is not upright; sin presses down like a heavy burden, and faith without love cannot make one upright.

Not plainly, but impiously: you gave your tongue to Christ, your soul to the devil. Hear, then, what he says: 'This person honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.'✦✦ You're certainly not upright, dividing things so wrongly. You can't lift up your head, pressed down by the devil's yoke. You can't raise yourself up — wickedness rules over you. Your iniquities have risen over your head, and like a heavy burden they weigh down upon you.✦ And wickedness sits on you like a talent of lead. You see that faith — even sound faith — doesn't make a person upright when it doesn't work through love.✦

Neither Faith Nor Works Alone

Without love one cannot love the bride, and without faith one cannot please God; therefore one who loves neither God nor the Church cannot be upright.

But whoever lacks love has no way to love the bride. But works, however upright they may be, are not enough to make the heart upright without faith. After all, who would call a man upright if he isn't pleasing to God? Without faith, though, it's impossible to please God. Whoever doesn't please God can't please him — God. For whoever pleases God can't displease him. And whoever doesn't please God doesn't please his bride, either. So how is anyone upright who loves neither God nor the Church of God, to which it is said, 'The upright love you'?

Let Us Be Found Upright

Believers should strive to make their ways straight, lifting their hearts to God, that their faith may be proven upright through upright deeds, and conclude with doxology.

So if neither faith without works nor works without faith is enough to set the soul right, we who believe in Christ, brothers, should strive to make our ways and our pursuits straight. Let us lift our hearts with our hands to God, so that we may be found wholly upright, proving the uprightness of our faith by upright deeds — lovers of the bride, beloved by the bridegroom Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God blessed forever. Amen.

Read the original Latin

Hoc demum tertio, fratres, reditum ab Urbe nostrum clementior oculus e coelo respexit, et vultus tandem serenior desuper arrisit nobis. Quievit Leonina rabies, finem accepit malitia, Ecclesia pacem recepit. Ad nihilum deductus est in conspectu eius malignus, qui eam per hoc ferme octennium diro schismate conturbarat. Num vero ego gratis de tantis periculis ero redditus vobis? Vestris desideriis donatus sum, vestris me profectibus paro: quorum vivo meritis, volo vivere studiis et saluti. Quodque dudum coepta in Canticis me exsequi vultis libenter quidem accipio, et dignum arbitror interruptum potius resarcire sermonem, quam novi ordiri quidpiam. Vereor autem ne dissuetum per id temporis animum et distentum diu habitum, non solum ad tam diversa, sed etiam ad tam indigna, dignitas materiae, prout oportet, non admittat. Sed si quod habeo, hoc vobis do; poterit et fideli obsequio meo Deus, etiam quod non habeo, dare ut dem.

Si non; culpetur sane ingenium, non voluntas.

Locus autem unde incipere debemus, ni fallor, iste est: Recti diligunt te. Quod antequam explanare incipiamus, quid sit videamus, cuius sit, quisnam hoc videlicet dicat. A nobis namque exigitur quod auctor non loquitur. Et fortasse melius adolescentulis id damus, ut suis verbis et hoc addant. Siquidem cum dixissent: Exsultabimus et laetabimur in te, memores uberum tuorum super vinum (nec dubium quin matri loquerentur), continuato sermone hoc quoque inferunt: Recti diligunt te. Puto propter aliquas de numero ipsarum, quae non idem saperent, licet pariter currere viderentur; quae sua sunt quaerentes, et non ambulantes simpliciter neque sincere, sed speciali gloriae matris invidentes, et captantes occasionem murmurandi adversus eam, ex eo nimirum quod sola in cellaria introisset. Quod non est aliud nisi quod Apostolus ait: Periculum in falsis fratribus. Ipsae sunt denique quibus exprobrantibus subinde pro se satisfacere cogitur, ubi eis ita respondet: Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiae Ierusalem.

Itaque propter murmurantes et blasphemantes dicitur ab his quae bonae, quae simplices, quae humiles et mansuetae sunt; ab his, inquam, dicitur sponsae consolandi gratia: Recti diligunt te. Non sit tibi, inquiunt, cura de iniqua reprehensione blasphemarum harum, cum constet quia Recti diligunt te. Bona profecto consolatio, cum blasphemamur a malis bene facientes, si recti diligant nos. Omnino sufficit adversus os loquentium iniqua, opinio bonorum cum testimonio conscientiae. In Domino laudabitur anima mea, audiant mansueti, et laetentur. Mansueti, inquit, laetentur. Mansuetis placeam, et aequanimiter audio quidquid in me iactare voluerit livor perditarum.

Ergo in hoc sensu puto appositum, Recti diligunt te. Nec absurde, ut aestimo: cum ubique pene in choro adolescentularum tales inveniantur, quae acta sponsae curiose observent, derogandi, non imitandi causa. Torquentur in bonis seniorum suorum, malis pascuntur. Videas ambulare seorsum, convenire sibi et sedere pariter, moxque laxare procaces linguas in detestandum susurrium. Una uni coniungitur, nec spiraculum incedit in eis; tanta est libido detrahendi, audiendive detrahentem. Ineunt familiaritatem ad maledicendunt, concordes ad discordiam. Conciliant inter se inimicissimas amicitias, et pari consentaneae malignitatis affectu celebratur odiosa collatio. Haud secus egere quondam Herodes et Pilatus, de quibus narrat Evangelium quia facti sunt amici in illa die, hoc est in die Dominicae passionis.

Convenientibus sic in unum, non est Dominicam coenam manducare, sed magis propinare et bibere calicem daemoniorum; dum importantibus linguis aliorum perditionis virus, aliorum aures intrantem mortem libenter excipiunt. Sic quippe, iuxta prophetam, intrat mors per fenestras nostras, cum prurientes auribus et oribus, lethale poculum detractionis invicem nobis ministrare contendimus. Non veniat anima mea in concilio detrahentium, quoniam Deus odit eos, dicente Apostolo: Detractores Deo odibiles. Quam sententiam Deus ipse loquens in psalmo, audi quomodo confirmat: Detrahentem, inquit, proximo suo, hunc persequebar.

Nec mirum, cum id praecipue vitium charitatem, quae Deus est, et quidem caeteris acrius, impugnare et persequi cognoscatur, quemadmodum vos quoque potestis advertere Omnis qui detrahit, primum quidem se ipsum prodit vacuum charitate, Deinde quid aliud detrahendo intendit, nisi ut is, cui detrahit, veniat in odium vel contemptum ipsis, apud quos detrahit? Ferit ergo charitatem in omnibus qui se audiunt lingua maledica, et quantum in se est, necat funditus et exstinguit: non solum autem, sed et in absentibus universis, ad quos volans verbum forte per eos, qui praesentes sunt, pervenire contigerit. Vides quam facile et in brevi ingentem multitudinem animarum velociter currens sermo tabe malitiae huius inficere possit. Propterea dicit de talibus propheticus spiritus: Quorum os maledictione et amaritudine plenum est, veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem. Utique tam veloces, quam velociter currit sermo. Unus est qui loquitur, et unum tantum verbum profert; et tamen illud unum verbum, uno in momento, multitudinis audientium, dum aures inficit, animas interficit. Cor siquidem felle livoris amarum per linguae instrumentum spargere nisi amara non potest, dicente Domino: Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur. Et sunt species pestis huius, dum alii quidem nude atque irreverenter, uti in buccam venerit, virus evomant detractionis; alii autem quodam simulatae verecundiae fuco conceptam malitiam, quam retinere non possunt, adumbrare conentur.

Videas alta praemitti suspiria, sicque quadam cum gravitate et tarditate, vultu moesto, dimissis superciliis, et voce plangenti egredi maledictionem, et quidem tanto persuasibiliorem, quanto creditur ab his qui audiunt, corde invito, et magis condolentis affectu, quam malitiose proferri. Doleo, inquit, vehementer, pro eo quod diligo eum satis, et nunquam potui de hac re corrigere eum. Et alius: Mihi quidem, ait, bene compertum fuerat de illo istud; sed per me nunquam innotuisset. At quoniam per alterum patefacta est res, veritatem negare non possum: dolens dico, revera ita est. Et addit: Grande damnum! nam alias quidem in pluribus valet; caeterum in hac parte, ut verum fateamur, excusari minime potest.

His paucis adversus malignissimum vitium commemoratis, revertamur ad explanandi ordinem, et demonstremus qui sint hoc loco intelligendi Recti. Non enim arbitror sentire quempiam rectae intelligentiae, secundum corpus rectos dici eos qui sponsam diligunt. Propterea demonstranda nobis est spiritualis, id est animi cordisve, rectitudo. Spiritus est qui loquitur, spiritualibus spiritualia comparans. Ergo secundum animum, non secundum terrenam et faeculentam materiam, Deus hominem rectum fecit. Ad imaginem quippe et similitudinem suam creavit illum. Ipse vero, quemadmodum psallis: Rectus Dominus Deus noster, et non est iniquitas in eo. Rectus itaque Deus rectum fecit hominem similem sibi, id est sine iniquitate, sicut non est iniquitas in eo.

Porro iniquitas, cordis est, non carnis vitium, ut per hoc noveris in spirituali portione tui, et non in crassa luteaque substantia Dei similitudinem conservandam fore, sive reparandam. Spiritus enim est Deus, et eos qui volunt similes ei vel perseverare, vel fieri, oportet intrare ad cor, atque in spiritu id negotii actitare: ubi revelata facie speculantes gloriam Dei, in eamdem imaginem transformentur de claritate in claritatem, tanquam a Domini Spiritu.

Quanquam et corporis staturam dedit homini Deus rectam; forsitan ut ista corporea exterioris viliorisque rectitudo figmenti hominem interiorem illum, qui ad imaginem Dei factus est, spiritualis suae servandae rectitudinis admoneret, et decor limi deformitatem argueret animi. Quid enim indecentius, quam curvum recto corpore gerere animum? Perversa res est et foeda, luteum vas, quod est corpus de terra, oculos habere sursum, coelos libere suspicere, coelorumque luminaribus oblectare aspectus; spiritualem vero coelestemque creaturam suos econtrario oculos, id est internos sensus atque affectus, trahere in terram deorsum; et quae debuit nutriri in croceis, haerere luto, tanquam unam de suibus, amplexarique stercora. Erubesce, anima mea, divinam pecorina commutasse similitudinem; crubesce volutari in coeno, quae de coelo es. Erubesce, anima, ait corpus, in mei consideratione. Creata creanti similis recta, me quoque accepisti adiutorium simile tibi, utique secundum lineamenta corporeae rectitudinis. Quocunque te vertas, sive ad Deum sursum, sive ad me deorsum (nemo siquidem carnem suam unquam odio habuit), ubique occurrit tibi species decoris tui, ubique pro statu tuae dignitatis habes de magisterio sapientiae familiarem admonitionem. Me ergo meam, quam tui gratia accepi, retinente et servante praerogativam; tu quomodo non confunderis amisisse tuam?

Cur suam in te Conditor intuetur abolitam similitudinem, cum tuam in me tibi conservet, assidueque repraesentet? Iam omne adiutorium, quod tibi ex me debebatur, vertisti tibi in confusionem; abuteris obsequio meo, indigne humanum corpus inhabitas, brutus et bestialis spiritus.

Istiusmodi ergo curvae animae non possunt diligere sponsam, quoniam non sunt amicae sponsi, cum sint mundi. Qui vult, inquit, amicus esse huius mundi, inimicus Dei constituitur. Ergo quaerere et sapere quae sunt super terram, curvitas animae est; et e regione, meditari ac desiderare quae sursum sunt, rectitudo. Et ipsa ut perfecta sit, in sensu definiatur et consensu. Rectum reverante dixerim, si recte in omnibus sentias, et factis non dissentias. Invisibilis animi statum nuntiet fides et actio. Rectum iudica, si fide catholicum, et iustum opere probaveris. Si quo minus, curvum censere non dubites.

Sic nempe habes: Si recte offers et recte non dividis, peccasti. Recte quidem quodcunque horum offers, recte autem ab alterutro ea non dividis. Noli esse rectus oblator et pravus divisor. Quid dividis actum a fide? Inique dividis, fidem perimens tuam: nam fides sine operibus mortua est. Munus mortuum offers Deo? Si enim quaedam anima fidei ipsa devotio est, quid fides quae non operatur ex dilectione, nisi cadaver exanime? Bene honoras Deum munere fetido?

bene placas tuae fidei interfector? Quomodo hostia pacifica ubi tam saeva discordia est? Non mirum si Cain insurrexit in fratrem, qui suam prius occiderat fidem. Quid miraris, o Cain, si ad tua non respicit munera qui te despicit? Nec hoc mirum si non respicit ad te, qui ita divisus es in te. Si manum devotioni, quid animum das livori? Non concilias Deum tibi, discors tecum, non placas, sed peccas; et nondum quidem impie ferendo, sed tamen dividendo non recte. Etsi necdum fratricida, iam tamen fideicida teneris.

Nunquid rectus, vel quando manum porrigis Deo, cuius cor in terram trahit livor et fraternum odium? Quomodo rectus, cuius fides mortua, cuius opus mors, cuius nulla devotio, amaritudo multa? Erat quidem in offerente fides, sed non in fide dilectio; recta oblatio, sed crudelis divisio.

Mors fidei est separatio charitatis. Credis in Christum? fac Christi opera, ut vivat fides tua. Fidem tuam dilectio animet, probet actio. Non incurvet terrenum opus, quem fides coelestium erigit. Qui te dicis in Christo manere, debes, sicut ipse ambulavit, et tu ambulare. Quod si propriam gloriam quaeris, florenti invides, absenti detrahis, reponis laedenti te: hoc Christus non fecit. Confiteris te nosse Deum, factis autem negas.

Non recte plane, sed impie linguam Christo, animam dedisti diabolo. Audi ergo quid dicat: Homo iste labiis me honorat, cor autem eius longe est a me. Non es profecto rectus, qui tam non recte dividis. Non potes attollere caput pressum diaboli iugo. Non te subrigere praevales, cui dominatur iniquitas. Iniquitates tuae supergressae sunt caput tuum, et sicut onus grave gravatae sunt super te. Iniquitas denique sedet super talentum plumbi. Vides quod non faciat hominem rectum fides etiam recta, quae non operatur ex dilectione.

At qui sine dilectione est, non habet unde diligat sponsam. Sed nec opera, quamvis recta, rectum cor efficere sufficiunt sine fide. Quis enim rectum dicat hominem non placentem Deo? Sine fide autem impossibile est placere Deo. Qui non placet Deo, non potest illi placere Deus. Nam cui placet Deus, Deo displicere non potest. Porro cui non placet Deus, nec sponsa eius. Quomodo ergo rectus, qui nec Deum diligit, nec Ecclesiam Dei, cui dicitur: Recti diligunt te?

Si ergo nec fides sine operibus, nec opera sine fide sufficiunt ad animi rectitudinem; nos qui in Christum credimus, fratres, rectas studeamus facere vias nostras et studia nostra. Levemus corda nostra cum manibus ad Deum, ut toti recti inveniamur, fidei nostrae rectitudinem rectis actibus comprobantes, dilectores sponsae, dilecti a sponso Iesu Christo Domino nostro, qui est Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Song.1.4 — Draw me after you—let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
  2. ↩Song.1.4 — Draw me after you—let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
  3. ↩2Cor.11.26 — In dangers from rivers, dangers from bandits, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers;
  4. ↩Song.1.5 — I am dark and lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
  5. ↩Song.1.4 — Draw me after you—let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
  6. ↩Song.1.4 — Draw me after you—let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
  7. ↩Ps.33.3 — Sing to him a new song; play skillfully with a shout.
  8. ↩Ps.33.3 — Sing to him a new song; play skillfully with a shout.
  9. ↩Luke.23.12 — Now Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day; for before this they had been hostile toward one another.
  10. ↩1Cor.10.21 — You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
  11. ↩Jer.9.21 — Speak thus — declares the LORD — and the corpse of man shall fall like dung upon the face of the field, and like sheaves after the reaper, and there is none to gather.
  12. ↩Rom.1.29-Rom.1.32 — They were filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips, Rom.1.30 — slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, Rom.1.31 — senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Rom.1.32 — Although they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
  13. ↩Ps.100.5 — For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
  14. ↩Ps.100.5 — For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
  15. ↩Isa.59.7 — Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; destruction and ruin are in their highways.
  16. ↩Matt.12.34 — Offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things, being evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
  17. ↩1Cor.2.13 — And these things we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things with spiritual words.
  18. ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
  19. ↩Ps.92.15 — They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing.
  20. ↩Ps.92.15 — They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing.
  21. ↩2Cor.3.18 — And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
  22. ↩Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
  23. ↩2Pet.2.22 — It has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and 'A sow, after washing herself, returns to wallowing in the mud.'
  24. ↩Gen.2.18 — Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.'
  25. ↩Eph.5.29 — For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church.
  26. ↩Isa.29.13;Matt.15.8 — And the Lord said: "Because this people draws near with its mouth and honors me with its lips, but its heart is far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by humans." Matt.15.8 — But "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."
  27. ↩Isa.29.13 — And the Lord said: "Because this people draws near with its mouth and honors me with its lips, but its heart is far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by humans."
  28. ↩Ps.38.4 — There is no soundness in my flesh because of your wrath; there is no peace in my bones because of my sin.
  29. ↩Gal.5.6 — For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any power; but only faith working through love.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Cellaria (wine cellars) carries figurative weight in the Song of Songs mystical tradition, likely pointing to deeper access to divine intimacy or spiritual knowledge.
  2. 2 ↩ut is ambiguous (purpose/result/explanatory); rendered as explanatory 'since' following the author's reflective gloss.
  3. 3 ↩choro adolescentularum may be literal (a choir of young women in community) or figurative (a group of less-experienced religious); translated literally.
  4. 4 ↩spiraculum incedit in eis is somewhat compressed; rendered as 'no breathing space passes among them,' capturing the sense of unbroken, relentless activity.
  5. 5 ↩maledicendunt is a rare/hapax form; rendered as 'speak evil' based on maledicere.
  6. 6 ↩'ab alterutro ea non dividis' is compressed: sense is that the addressee fails to keep the offered goods rightly distinct/separated from each other, i.e., confuses what should be divided. Rendered to preserve the contrast with 'recte offers'.
  7. 7 ↩'fides sine operibus mortua est' echoes James 2:26 ('faith without works is dead'); final citation resolution deferred to scripture-allusion stage.
  8. 8 ↩'anima fidei ipsa devotio est' is compressed and the apodosis is a sharp rhetorical question; rendered to keep the contrast between living devotion and dead faith.

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