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Chapter 73SermC.1.73

Sermo 73

The Bride's Restless Love

Bernard questions the bride's sudden spiritual inconstancy and diagnoses an immoderate love that overrides reason and modesty.

Return; be like, my beloved, a roe-deer and a young stag.✦ What? Now you go, now you call back? What sudden thing has emerged in so short a time? Have you forgotten something, forgetful one?1 Forgetful even of the whole that is not him, and of herself as well. In short, though she is not without reason, yet she does not, it seems, have full command of it. But neither does any modesty appear to her at all in her senses, the kind she perhaps has in her habits.

Immoderate Love and the Letter That Kills

Immoderate love shames the soul into urgency, while only the Spirit, not the letter, gives life and understanding of the sacred text.

Immoderate love does this. To be sure, that is the one who, triumphing over and taking captive every sense of shame within himself — the measure of what is fitting, the counsel of deliberation, and the whole of modesty — produces a certain neglect of timeliness and a certain carelessness. For see now how she demands his return, though he has barely begun to leave, and yet already she urgently calls him back. She even begs him to hurry, and indeed to run like some swiftly moving forest creature — for instance, a roe deer or a young stag.✦ This is the tenor of the letter, and this is the portion of the Jews.✦ And so, just as I received from the Lord, in the depth of the sacred utterance's embrace I will search out for myself a spirit and a life; and this is my portion, I who believe in Christ. Why wouldn't I rescue a sweet and wholesome feast for the spirit from the sterile and tasteless letter — like grain from chaff, a kernel from its husk, marrow from bone? The letter does me no good — this letter which, having tasted, savors of the flesh and, once swallowed, brings death; for what is hidden within it comes from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, however, speaks mysteries — the Apostle being witness — but Israel holds the very veil of the mystery in place of a veiled mystery. Why, unless it's because a veil is still placed over their heart? And so what the letter sounds forth belongs to that people; but what it signifies belongs to me — and through this, to them a ministry of death in the letter, but to me life in the Spirit. For it's the Spirit who gives life — it's the Spirit who grants understanding. Isn't understanding itself life?

Hunger for Understanding

The soul that seeks understanding penetrates the deep things of God, yet those who lack understanding, like the elder brother, refuse the feast and the beauty of brotherly unity.

"Give me understanding, and I will live," the prophet says to the Lord. Understanding doesn't remain outside, it doesn't cling to the surface, and it doesn't grope at external things like a blind person; instead, it searches into the deep things and, as is its habit, eagerly hastens to seize the most precious spoils of truth for itself from there, so it can say to the Lord with the prophet: "I will rejoice over your words like someone who finds great spoils."23 And so the kingdom of truth suffers violence, and the violent seize it.✦4 But that elder brother, coming from the field, who held to the form of the old and earthly people, who was taught to love the threshing floor for an earthly inheritance, groans with an anxious, worn brow under the heavy yoke of the law, and bears the burden of the day and the heat.✦56 He, I say, because he didn't have understanding, stands even now outside, and doesn't wish to enter the house of the feast when invited by the father, cheating himself even now of the participation in the harmony, the choir, and the fatted calf.✦78 Wretched is the one who refuses to experience how good and how pleasant it is to dwell as brothers in unity.✦9 And let these things be said to distinguish the part of the Church from the part of the Synagogue, so that the blindness of the latter may become more manifest from the prudence of the former, and the happiness of the former may excel from the pitiable foolishness of the latter.1011

Why the Bridegroom Comes as a Frail Creature

The bride longs for Christ's swift return in the form of a gentle, weak creature so that mercy may temper judgment and the weak may find confidence.

So now let's look at what the Bride says, and try to put into words the pure affections of holy love — so that nothing irrational seems to have found a place in this sacred utterance, nothing unbecoming or out of place. And if that hour comes to mind when the Lord Jesus — he is the Bridegroom, after all — was passing from this world to the Father, and at the same time, what his own domestic Church, the new Bride, was feeling in her heart, when she saw herself being deserted like a desolate widow, with no hope left but him — I'm talking about the apostles, who had left everything and followed him, and had remained with him in their trials — if, I say, we reflect on these things, it will seem, not undeservedly or unfittingly, I think, that she was as sorrowful over his departure as she was anxious about his return, especially since she was so deeply affected and so utterly left behind. So for the one who is devoted and in need, this twofold way of reminding the beloved was meant so that, since it couldn't be brought home to him that he should go and ascend to where he was before, at least he would hasten the promised coming all over again. For what it longs for and demands is that he become like wild beasts — and wild beasts of the kind that seem to outrun others in speed — and this is a sign of a desiring heart, for which nothing it hurries toward is enough. Doesn't it demand this every day when it says in prayer: Your kingdom come? But beyond the nimbleness, I think the weakness is no less strikingly expressed — and indeed the weakness of sex in the doe, of age in the young mule. And so he wishes, it seems to me, even though he comes with power, not to appear in the form of God in judgment; but truly in that state in which he was not only born for us, but born as a child for us — and that from the weaker, feminine sex alone. Why this? Doubtless so that from both he may warn the weak one to be gentle in the day of wrath, and may remember in judgment to exalt mercy above judgment. For indeed, if he will have observed the iniquities even of the chosen ones, who will endure it? The stars are not clean in his sight, and among his angels he finds perversity. Hear, finally, what the holy and chosen one says to God: 'You,' he says, 'have pardoned the impiety of my sin.' For this every holy one will pray to you in the opportune time.

All Have Sinned; Mercy Answers Wrath

Even the saints depend on mercy rather than their own righteousness, so that God's wrath may give way to compassion.

And so even the saints have work to do in praying for sins, so that they may be saved through mercy, not trusting in their own righteousness. All have sinned, and all of us stand in need of mercy. So that, when he has grown angry, he may remember mercy — he is entreated by this very anger to appear clothed in mercy, that one of whom the Apostle says: "And in his bearing he was found as a man."✦1213

The Terror and Tenderness of Christ the Judge

Christ will come as a human judge so that the elect can face the divine majesty without despair, clothed in mercy rather than unbearable glory.

Necessarily so, indeed. For if, even with this restraint, there will be such equity in the judgment, such severity in the judge, such surpassing greatness in his majesty, such strangeness in the very face of things, that — as the prophet says — the day of his coming cannot be imagined, then what, do you think, would it have been if that consuming fire (I speak of God almighty) had come in the full magnitude, power, and purity of his divinity against a leaf carried away by the wind, about to display his might and pursue dry stubble?✦ And he is a man, it says — and who will look at him?✦ And who will stand to face him?✦ How much less, then, could any of us bear God showing himself to us without a human form — inaccessible in his brightness, unattainable in his height, beyond comprehension in his majesty? But now, when his wrath has blazed up briefly — a wrath that will appear welcome, gentle, as a kind human vision to the children of grace, because of them — it will truly be the firmament of faith, the strength of hope, the growth of confidence: namely, that grace and mercy are upon his saints, and his regard is on his chosen ones. In short, God the Father himself gave the Son authority to judge — and not because he is his own Son, but because he is the Son of Man.✦ O true Father of mercies!✦

The Judge Who Leaps Upon the Mountains

David prophesied that God would judge through a king; Christ will return in bodily form, leaping like a stag to shatter the wicked but reveal himself gently to the elect.

He wants humanity to be judged by a human being, so that in the midst of such great terror and turmoil of evil, the likeness of nature might offer confidence to the chosen ones. The holy David had once said this, praying at the same time and prophesying: 'God, give your judgment to the king, and your justice to the king's son.'14 And the promise made through the angels is not at odds with this. After Jesus had been taken up, they spoke to the apostles like this: 'This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him going into heaven' — that is, in this very form and substance of his body.15 All of this makes it clear that the bride carries divine counsel within herself and is far from ignorant of the mystery of heaven's will — namely, that the weaker nature of living creatures, which under the image of the timid and the frail is really the lower nature, since it will no longer be frail, is to be revealed at the judgment. And she declares this with the affection of one who prays and with the spirit of one who prophesies: so that the one who will shake heaven and earth in his own power, girded with strength against the senseless, may nevertheless appear gentle and mild and, as it were, entirely unarmed for the sake of the elect.✦✦ Where this too can be added: because there will be a need, in a certain way, for him to distinguish one from another, with the leaps indeed of a young stag, with the keen eyes of a roe deer, so that he may be able to see and to distinguish, in so great a multitude and in so great a turmoil, which ones he must leap upon and which ones he must leap over, lest it perhaps happen that the just one is trampled for the impious one, when in wrath he shatters the peoples.✦✦ For as far as the impious are concerned, David's prophecy must be fulfilled — or rather, the word of the Lord speaking through his mouth: 'I will crush them like dust before the face of the wind; like the mud of the streets I will destroy them.' And likewise another word, which he had foretold through another prophet, will then be recognized as fulfilled, when returning to the angels he will say: 'I have trampled them in my fury, and I have trampled them down in my wrath.'✦✦

Mountains of Bethel

The mountains of Bethel are not obstacles to be removed by faith but holy heights to be revered—the angelic powers among whom Christ appears.

But if someone thinks it should rather be taken this way — that the colt ought to leap over the wicked and spring upon the good — I won't argue. Only let him keep in mind that this leaping is meant to bring about the separation of the good from the wicked. For if I remember rightly, I said this in another discourse where the same chapter is found placed earlier by the author and is also expounded by me (above, Sermon 54). 54). But there, in the dispensation of grace given to some in this present life and not to others — by God's just, though hidden, judgment — that colt was said to leap and leap over; here, however, it is a matter of the final and varied retribution of merits. And perhaps the end of this chapter, which I had almost entirely forgotten, may seem to fit this sense. For when he says, 'Be like, my beloved, a roe deer and a young deer among the stags,' he adds, 'upon the mountains of Bethel.'✦ For in the house of God — which is what 'Bethel' means — the wicked are not mountains. Therefore, leaping upon them, the colt does not trample them but gladdens them, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled which says, 'The mountains and the hills will sing praises before God.'✦ Now there are mountains that faith, compared to a grain of mustard seed, removes according to the Gospel — but these are not the mountains of Bethel.✦ For whatever mountains are Bethel, faith does not remove them — it reveres and honors them.

Made Lower Than the Angels

Christ was made lower than the angels not by necessity but by voluntary condescension, an act of mercy for our sake.

So if the principalities and powers, and also the rest of the hosts of blessed spirits and the virtues of the heavens are mountains of Bethel, so that we may understand about them the saying, 'Its foundations are in the holy mountains,' surely it is not some cheap and contemptible person who appeared above such excellent mountains, made so much better than the angels, and who inherited a name so far surpassing theirs. What then, if in the psalm we read that he was 'made less than the angels'? . For it is not the case that he is not better because he is lesser; and the Apostle and the Prophet have not spoken contrary things, since they have the same Spirit. For if his being made less was an act of condescension, it was not a matter of necessity; clearly nothing in this is prescribed to goodness, but is ascribed to it. Finally, the Prophet testified that he was 'made less,' yet not 'less,' lifting up grace and driving away injury. For both nature refuses 'littleness,' and cause excuses 'lessening.' Indeed, he was made less because he himself willed it: he was made less by his own will, and by our necessity.

Crowned Through Death

Christ's humiliation only deepened his tender love, and the Apostle proclaims him crowned with glory and honor through the suffering of death.

To be made lower, in this way, was to show mercy. What destruction is this? Surely whatever seemed to have perished from his majesty only added to his tender love. And yet the Apostle did not keep silent about this great mystery of profound love, but says: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.✦

The Young Donkey and the Firstborn

Christ's humble form does not diminish his majesty; in his incarnate state he is firstborn of all creation, and God's weakness is stronger than any angelic power.

And we have said these things with respect to the name and likeness of the young donkey, so that we might adapt her to the bridegroom, following the bride's discourse, without detracting from his majesty. Why do I say 'without detracting from his majesty,' when not even his weakness has gone without honor? He is a young donkey, he is a little one; he is also said to be like a doe, as if made from woman: yet above the mountains of Bethel, yet made higher than the heavens. It doesn't say 'higher than the heavens in being or existing,' but 'higher than the heavens in what was made,' lest anyone think this was said about that nature in which the One who is exists. But also, where he is set above angels, the result is said to be better nonetheless, and it isn't said that he remains or exists as better. From these things it is clear that not only in what he is from eternity, but also in what was made in time, he claims every preeminence for himself—above every rule and authority, and finally above every creature—as the firstborn of all creation.✦ So what is foolish of God is wiser than men, and what is weak of God is stronger than men.✦ The Apostle says this indeed.

The Bride's Personal Experience

Bernard applies the passage to the universal Church and then to the individual soul as bride, closing with a doxology to Christ the Bridegroom.

But it doesn't seem to me that anyone is mistaken if, time and again, he says that what is foolish and weak of God is to be preferred even to the wisdom and strength of angels. And so this present passage will fittingly be applied to the universal Church. Now, as far as one single soul in particular is concerned — for if a soul loves God with sweetness, wisdom, and intensity, it is a bride — any spiritual person can notice within themselves what corresponding experience is theirs. Whatever experience of this kind has been granted to me, I won't be afraid to speak of it in public. For even if it sounds cheap and contemptible when heard, it's not my concern — because someone who is spiritual won't despise me, and someone who is less so won't understand me. Still, if I keep this word for another time, there will perhaps be no lack of people who are built up in those things which the Lord, when appealed to in the meantime, will inspire — the bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Read the original Latin

Revertere; similis esto, dilecte mi, capreae hinnuloque cervorum. Quid? modo it, modo revocas? Quid subitum in tam brevi emersit? Oblitane aliquid? Etiam oblita totum quod non ille est, se quoque ipsam. Denique cum sit rationis non expers, non tamen modo, ut videtur, rationis est compos. Sed nec in sensu illi ullatenus apparet verecundia esse, quam forte habet in moribus.

Amor intemperans facit hoc. Nempe is est qui omnem in se triumphans captivansque pudoris sensum, convenientiae modum, deliberationis consilium, totius modestiae et opportunitatis neglectum quemdam et quamdam incuriam parit. Nam vide nunc quomodo illum, pene adhuc incipientem ire, iam tamen redire flagitat. Etiam accelerare rogat, et quidem currere instar unius alicuius ferae silvarum velociter currentis, verbi gratia, capreae, hinnulive cervorum. Hic litterae tenor, et haec Iudaeorum portio.

Ego vero, quemadmodum accepi a Domino, in profundo sacri eloquii gremio spiritum mihi scrutabor et vitam; et pars mea haec, qui in Christum credo. Quidni eruam dulce ac salutare epulum spiritus de sterili et insipida littera, tanquam granum de palea, de testa nucleum, de osse medullam? Nihil mihi et litterae huic, quae gustata carnem sapit, glutita mortem affert; sed enim quod in ea tectum est, de Spiritu sancto est. Spiritus autem loquitur mysteria, teste Apostolo; sed Israel pro velato mysterio ipsum mysterii velamen tenet. Quare, nisi quia adhuc velamen est positum super cor eius? Ita quod sonat littera, illius est: quod signat, meum est; ac per hoc illi ministratio mortis in littera, mihi vita in spiritu. Nam spiritus est qui vivificat : dat quippe intellectum. An non vita intellectus?

Intellectum da mihi, et vivam, ait Propheta Domino. Intellectus non remanet extra, non haeret in superficie, non instar caeci palpat forinseca; sed profunda rimatur, pretiosissimas solitus exinde veritatis exuvias tota aviditate diripere ac tollere sibi, et cum Propheta dicere Domino: Laetabor ego super eloquia tua, sicut qui invenit spolia multa. Nempe ita regnum veritatis vim patitur, et violenti rapiunt illud. Verum ille senior frater, qui de agro veniens formam tenuit populi veteris et terreni, qui pro terrena haereditate doctus diligere trituram, attrita fronte gemit anxius sub gravi iugo legis, portatque pondus diei et aestus. Is, inquam, quia intellectum non habuit, foris stat etiam nunc, et non vult nec invitatus a patre intrare domum convivii, semetipsum fraudans usque adhuc participio symphoniae, et chori, et vituli saginati. Miser qui renuit experiri, quam bonum sit et quam iucundum habitare fratres in unum. Et haec dicta sint pro distinctione partis Ecclesiae, partisque Synagogae, quo et caecitas huius ex illius prudentia manifestior fiat, et felicitas illius ex huius miseranda fatuitate praeemineat.

Nunc iam scrutemur verba sponsae, et sic conemur castos exprimere sancti amoris affectus, ut nil in sacro eloquio ratione carens, nil indecorum importunumve resedisse omnino appareat. Et si in mentem venerit hora illa, cum Dominus Iesus (is enim sponsus est) transiret ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, simulque quid tunc animi gereret sua illa domestica Ecclesia, nova utique nupta, cum se deseri cerneret quasi viduam desolatam unica spe sua: apostolos loquor, qui relictis omnibus secuti fuerant eum, atque cum ipso permanserant in tentationibus suis; si haec, inquam, cogitaverimus, non immerito neque incongrue, puto, videbitur quantum de abscessu tristis, tantum sollicita exstitisse de reditu, praesertim sic affecta, et sic relicta. Itaque diligenti et indigenti haec ipsa duplex ratio erat commonendi dilectum, ut, quandoquidem persuaderi non poterat quin iret et ascenderet ubi erat prius, saltem promissum denuo maturaret adventum. Quod enim optat et postulat similem fore feris, et eiusmodi feris, quae cursu agiliores esse videntur; cupientis animi indicium est, cui nihil satis festinatur. Nonne hoc quotidie postulat, cum dicit in oratione: Adveniat regnum tuum?

Ego tamen praeter agilitatem, existimo non minus signanter exprimi etiam infirmitatem, et quidem sexus in caprea, aetatis in hinnulo. Vult itaque eum, ut mihi videtur, etsi cum potestate venire, non tamen in forma Dei in iudicio apparere; sed sane in ea, qua non modo natus, sed et parvulus natus est nobis, idque solo de infirmiori femineo sexu. Cur hoc? Nempe ut ex utroque admoneatur infirmo mitescere in die irae, memineritque in iudicio misericordiam superexaltare iudicio. Etenim si iniquitates observaverit, etiam electorum, quis sustinebit? Astra non sunt munda in conspectu eius, et in angelis suis reperit pravitatem. Audi denique sanctum et electum quid dicat Deo: Tu, inquit, remisisti impietatem peccati mei. Pro hac orabit ad te omnis sanctus in tempore opportuno.

Opus itaque habent et sancti pro peccatis exorare, ut de misericordia salvi fiant, propriae iustitiae non fidentes. Omnes enim peccaverunt, et egent omnes misericordia. Ut ergo cum iratus fuerit, misericordiae recordetur, rogatur ab ista apparere in misericordiae habitu, illo, de quo Apostolus: Et habitu, inquit, inventus ut homo.

Necessarie quidem. Si enim cum hoc quoque temperamento tanta erit in iudicio aequitas, in iudice feritas, in maiestate sublimitas, novitas in facie ipsa rerum, ut secundum prophetam non possit cogitari dies adventus eius : quid, putas, foret, si ignis ille consumens (Deum loquor omnipotentem) in illa suae divinitatis magnitudine, fortitudine, puritate venisset, contra folium quod vento rapitur ostensurus potentiam suam, et stipulam siccam persecuturus? Et homo est, inquit, et quis videbit eum? Et quis stabit ad videndum eum. Quanto magis Deum nobis absque homine exhibentem nemo hominum ferret, utpote claritate inaccessibilem, celsitudine inattingibilem, incomprehensibilem maiestate? Nunc vero cum exarserit in brevi ira eius, quam grata propter filios gratiae apparebit blanda quaedam visio hominis, sane firmamentum fidei, spei robur, fiduciae augmentum: quod scilicet gratia et misericordia sit in sanctos eius, et respectus in electos illius. Denique ipse Pater Deus dedit Filio iudicii potestatem, et non quia suus, sed quia Filius hominis est. O vere Patrem misericordiarum!

vult per hominem homines iudicari, quo in tanta trepidatione et perturbatione malorum, electis fiduciam praestet naturae similitudo. Praedixerat hoc quondam sanctus David, orans pariter et prophetans: Deus, inquiens, iudicium tuum regi da, et iustitiam tuam filio regis. Sed neque huic dissonat promissio facta per angelos, qui eo assumpto ita ad apostolos loquebantur: Hic Iesus qui assumptus est a vobis in coelum, sic veniet, quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in coelum, hoc est, in hac ipsa corporis forma atque substantia.

Liquet ex his omnibus sponsam in se divinum habere consilium, et mysterium supernae voluntatis minime ignorare, quae sub umbra imbellium imbecilliumque animantium naturam infirmiorem, vel potius inferiorem, quia iam infirma non erit, in iudicio exhibendam, et orantis affectu, et spiritu prophetantis enuntiat; quatenus qui coelum terramque movebit in virtute sua, accinctus potentia contra insensatos, et suavis nihilominus et mitis, et quasi omnino inermis appareat propter electos. Ubi hoc quoque addi potest, quia ad discernendum alterutros a se, opus erit quodam modo illi, cum hinnuli quidem saltibus, luminibus capreae; quatenus videre et discernere in tanta multitudine et in tanta turbatione possit, in quosnam salire, et quos transilire oporteat, ne forte contingat iustum pro impio conculcari, cum in ira populos confringet. Nam quantum ad impios, necesse est ut impleatur prophetia David, imo sermo Domini loquentis per os eius, quia comminuam eos ut pulverem ante faciem venti, ut lutum platearum delebo eos; et item alius sermo, quem per alium prophetam praedixerat, impletus nihilominus tunc cognoscetur, cum ad angelos rediens dicet: Calcavi eos in furore meo, et conculcavi eos in ira mea.

Si cui autem magis ita intelligendum videtur, ut malos potius transilire, atque in bonos salire hinnulus noster debeat, non contendo: tantum cogitet saltus dispositum iri in discriminationem bonorum, malorumque. Nam et a me, si bene memini, ita dictum est in sermone altero, ubi capitulum idem alibi supra et ab auctore positum, et a me expositum nihilominus reperitur (Supra serm. 54). Verum ibi secundum dispensationem quidem gratiae, quae in praesenti vita aliis datur, aliis non datur, iusto quidem Dei iudicio, sed occulto, salire, et transilire is hinnulus dictus est; hic autem, secundum ultimam ac variam retributionem meritorum. Et forte sensui huic videatur astipulari extremum capituli huius, quod quidem pene oblitus fueram. Dicens namque: Similis esto, dilecte mi, capreae hinnuloque cervorum, addit, super montes Bethel. Nec enim in domo Dei, quod sonat Bethel, mali montes sunt. Quamobrem saliens in eos hinnulus non conculcat, sed laetificat, ut Scriptura impleatur quae dicit: Montes et colles cantabunt coram Deo laudes.

Et quidem sunt montes, quos secundum Evangelium tollit fides comparata sinapi, sed non sunt montes Bethel. Etenim quicunque sunt Bethel, minime eos tollit fides, sed colit.

Quod si principatus et potestates, nec non et caetera nihilominus beatorum Spirituum agmina, coelorumque virtutes montes sunt Bethel, ut de his intelligamus dictum: Fundamenta eius in montibus sanctis, non sane is binnulus vilis ac contemnendus, qui supra tam excellentes montes visus est apparere, tanto angelis melior effectus, quanto differentius prae illis nomen haereditavit. Quid enim, si in psalmo legimus minoratum ab angelis? . Neque enim ideo non melior, quia minor; nec contraria sunt locuti Apostolus et Propheta, quippe habentes eumdem Spiritum. Nam si dignationis fuit quod minoratus est, non necessitatis; nihil plane in hoc bonitati praescribitur, sed ascribitur. Denique minoratum Propheta perhibuit, non minorem, attollens gratiam, et propellens iniuriam. Nam et minoritatem natura recusat, et minorationem excusat causa. Nempe minoratus est, quia ipse voluit: minoratus est sua voluntate, et nostra necessitate.

Sic minorari, misereri fuit. Quaenam perditio haec? Profecto accessit pietati, quidquid maiestati visum est deperiisse. Quanquam nec Apostolus tacuit hoc magnum magnae pietatis arcanum, sed ait: Eum autem qui modico quam Angeli minoratus est, videmus Iesum, propter passionem mortis gloria et honore coronatum.

Et haec dixerimus pro nomine et similitudine hinnuli, quatenus sponso eam, iuxta sermonem sponsae, absque maiestatis iniuria aptaremus. Quid dico, absque maiestatis iniuria, quando nec infirmitas inhonorata remansit? Hinnulus est, parvulus est; capreae quoque similis perhibetur, tanquam factus ex muliere: attamen super montes Bethel, attamen excelsior caelis factus. Non dicit: Excelsior coelis ens vel existens; sed, excelsior coelis factus: ne quis putet de illa natura dictum, in qua est qui est. Sed et ubi praefertur angelis, melior nihilominus perhibetur effectus, et non dicitur manens vel existens melior. Ex quibus apparet, quod non modo in eo quod ab aeterno est, sed etiam in eo quod in tempore factus est, omnem sibi eminentiam vindicet supra omnem principatum et potestatem, supra omnem denique creaturam, utpote primogenitus omnis creaturae. Itaque quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus; et quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus. Hoc quidem Apostolus.

Mihi autem non videtur errare, si quis etiam sapientiae et fortitudini angelorum praeferendum dicat identidem stultum infirmumque Dei. Ita ergo praesens locus convenienter aptabitur universali Ecclesiae.

Iam vero quod ad unam singulariter animam spectat (nam et una, si Deum dulciter, sapienter, vehementer amat, sponsa est), quisque spiritualis in semetipso advertere potest, quid sibi inde proprium respondeat experimentum. Ego vero quidquid illud est, quod in me de huiusmodi experiri donatum est, coram eloqui non verebor. Nam etsi vile forsitan cum fuerit auditum, et despicabile videatur, non mea refert; quia qui spiritualis est, non me despiciet; qui minus, non me intelliget. Attamen si in alium istud sermonem servavero, forte non deerunt qui aedificentur in iis, quae exoratus interim Dominus inspirabit, sponsus Ecclesiae, Iesus Christus Dominus noster, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
  2. ↩Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
  3. ↩2Cor.3.6 — who also has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
  4. ↩Matt.11.12 — From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
  5. ↩Luke.15.25 — Now his older son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
  6. ↩Luke.15.28-Luke.15.30 — But he was angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. Luke.15.29 — But he answered his father, 'Look, all these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me even a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.' Luke.15.30 — but when this son of yours who has devoured your livelihood with prostitutes came, you killed the fattened calf for him
  7. ↩Ps.132.1 — A Song of Ascents. Remember, O LORD, for David all his afflictions
  8. ↩Phil.2.7 — but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and appearing as a human being.
  9. ↩Mal.3.2 — But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
  10. ↩Isa.17.12 — Ah, the roar of many peoples! They roar like the roaring seas; and the rushing of nations! They rush like the rushing of mighty waters.
  11. ↩Mal.3.2 — But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
  12. ↩John.5.27 — And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
  13. ↩2Cor.1.3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
  14. ↩Song.2.8-Song.2.9 — The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
  15. ↩Matt.24.31 — And he will send out his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
  16. ↩Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
  17. ↩Ps.2.9 — You will shatter them with a rod of iron; like a potter's vessel you will dash them to pieces.
  18. ↩Ps.18.42;2Sam.22.43 — They cried out, but there was no one to save; they cried to the LORD, but He did not answer them. 2Sam.22.43 — I will crush them like the dust of the earth; like the mud of the streets I will trample them, I will spread them out.
  19. ↩Isa.63.3 — I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples there was no one with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and I stained all my clothing.
  20. ↩Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
  21. ↩Isa.49.13 — Sing, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth; break forth into singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted his people, and he will have mercy on his afflicted.
  22. ↩Matt.17.20;Mark.11.23;Luke.17.6 — And he said to them, 'Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you.' Mark.11.23 — Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Luke.17.6 — And the Lord said, 'If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you.'
  23. ↩Heb.2.9 — But we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
  24. ↩Col.1.15 — He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
  25. ↩1Cor.1.25 — For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Oblitane: form uncertain; taken as vocative of oblita (forgetful woman) with -ne interrogative particle. The speaker addresses the soul (or bride) as forgetful.
  2. 2 ↩The string of negatives (non remanet, non haeret, non palpat) is rendered with parallel 'does not' clauses to keep the rhythm natural in contemporary English without losing the emphatic force.
  3. 3 ↩exuvias ... diripere: 'spoils ... to seize' preserves the martial/plunder imagery of the Latin rather than softening it.
  4. 4 ↩Nempe ita: rendered 'So indeed' to capture the confirmatory nempe and the connective ita.
  5. 5 ↩trituram: 'threshing floor' preserves the agricultural/literal sense of the Mosaic economy rather than paraphrasing it.
  6. 6 ↩attrita fronte: 'with worn brow' captures the physical attrition image rather than a generic 'anxious expression'.
  7. 7 ↩participio symphoniae: 'participation in the harmony' keeps the liturgical/musical sense of symphonia in the monastic context.
  8. 8 ↩vituli saginati: 'fatted calf' preserves the concrete sacrificial/feast image from the Latin.
  9. 9 ↩habitare fratres in unum: 'to dwell as brothers in unity' preserves the concrete communal sense of the Latin phrase.
  10. 10 ↩dicta sint: jussive/hortatory subjunctive rendered as 'let these things be said' to preserve the formal, almost liturgical tone.
  11. 11 ↩quo ... fiat, praeemineat: the purpose clause with two subjunctives is rendered with 'whereby ... may become ... and ... may excel' to keep the resultative force.
  12. 12 ↩The Latin is compressed and syntactically ambiguous: the subject of recordetur and rogatur is left implicit (God, or possibly the one praying), and ab ista is elliptical ("by this" — i.e., by this anger, or by this fact). The rendering takes God as the one entreated to remember mercy and to appear in a merciful guise, consistent with the surrounding context.
  13. 13 ↩The embedded quotation "Et habitu inventus ut homo" echoes Philippians 2:7 ("in habitu inventus ut homo"); final source resolution belongs to a later stage.
  14. 14 ↩Psalm 71:1 (Vulgate 70:1); the royal psalm is here read christologically, applied to Christ as the one to whom the Father gives judgment.
  15. 15 ↩Acts 1:11, spoken by the angels at the Ascension; the explanatory clause 'hoc est, in hac ipsa corporis forma atque substantia' is the author's gloss, stressing the bodily identity of the returning Christ.

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