Sermo 84
The Soul's Night Search
Bernard opens by echoing the Bride's restless search for the beloved and extols the supreme gift of seeking God, which surpasses all other virtues and fulfills the soul's deepest purpose.
On my bed through the nights I sought the one my soul loves.✦ It's a great good to seek God. I believe this is granted to no one among the good things of the soul. It's first among gifts, last among advances. It yields to no one in virtues, gives way to no one. Whom no virtue precedes, whom none outranks. To whom all else gives way, which is the fulfillment of all things. For what virtue can be credited to one not seeking God, and what end is there for the one who does?1
Desire That Grows with Finding
Drawing on the scriptural command to seek God's face always, Bernard argues that holy desire is not extinguished by finding but is intensified, so that joy and longing advance together without end.
"Seek his face always," it says. I think that even once he is found, the seeking won't stop. God isn't sought by the steps of our feet, but by our desires. And yet a holy desire is certainly not extinguished by a happy finding — it's only stretched further. Is the consummation of joy really the consuming of desire? The oil is more its own flame to the one who burns. So it is. You'll be filled with joy, but desire will have no end — and because of this, neither will the seeking.
Seeking Without Anxiety
Bernard pauses to consider whether the soul can maintain zeal for seeking without neediness and desire without anxiety, noting that both are driven out by the very abundance they seek.
Now think, if you can, whether you can keep this zeal for seeking without neediness, and desire without anxiety. One is surely driven out by presence, the other by abundance.2
The Danger of Usurping Grace
Warning against spiritual self-deception, Bernard teaches that those who claim God's gifts as their own achievements commit a kind of theft, making themselves least before God despite appearing great through grace.
Now, look: here's why I said those things in advance. Clearly, every soul among you that seeks God should know this: lest it turn the great good into a great evil for itself, forestalled by that good and sought after before it was ever really seeking. For this is how evils regularly arise even from great blessings — and not the smallest ones — since when people achieve remarkable things through the Lord's gifts, they use those gifts as though they hadn't been given to them, and they give no glory to God. That's exactly how it goes: those who seemed to be the greatest because of the grace they received are regarded as the least before God, because they didn't give any of it back. But I'll spare you. I've used more restrained language — the strongest and the weakest terms — but I still haven't expressed what I feel. I've wrapped up the crisis in veiled terms; I'll lay it bare myself: I should have said what is best and what is worst. For truly and beyond any doubt, each person is as worthless as he is worthy, if he claims for himself the very thing that makes him worthy.
Confession of Grace and Judgment
Bernard confesses that whatever he is comes by God's grace, and pronounces judgment on any servant who would steal his master's glory, applying the Gospel words to the unfaithful soul.
Surely this is the worst thing. But if someone should say, "Far be it!" I know that by the grace of God I am what I am; but if he tries to snatch a little glory for himself from the grace he has received, isn't he a thief and a robber?✦3 Let anyone in that position hear: "I judge you by your own words, you wicked servant."✦ What is more wicked than a servant who seizes his master's glory for himself?
The Word Who Seeks First
Returning to the Song of Songs image, Bernard teaches that the soul can only seek the Word because it was first sought by the Word, and he calls the wandering soul to return from its exile through divine initiative.
On my bed through the nights I searched for the one my soul loves.✦ The soul seeks the Word, but only the soul that was first sought out by the Word. Otherwise, once it has gone out from the face of the Word or been cast out, its eye will not turn back to see the good things — unless it is sought again by the Word. As if our soul were anything other than a spirit that goes forth and does not return when it is left to itself. Listen to the fugitive and the wanderer — what it grieves over, and what it longs for. I have wandered, it says, like a lost sheep: seek your servant. O mortal, do you want to return? But if the matter lies in the will, why do you beg for help?
Willing Without Ability
Bernard explores the soul's paralysis: it wants to return but cannot, and even the will to return is itself a gift of the Word that visits and seeks the soul, yet one visitation is not enough given the soul's weakness.
What do you beg from elsewhere that you don't already have in abundance? It's plain to see: the soul wants, and yet it cannot. It's a spirit that goes out and doesn't return — even if it travels farther, it still doesn't truly will. Still, I wouldn't say that the soul which longs to return and seeks to be sought is entirely exposed or abandoned. For where would this will come from for the soul, if it weren't visited and sought by the Word? This will comes from there, unless I'm mistaken — from the Word that has now visited and sought the soul. Nor is the seeking idle when it has stirred up the will — without that will, there couldn't be any return. But being sought once isn't enough. So great is the soul's weakness, and so great the difficulty of returning. What good is it, then, if the soul wills but cannot?
The Cry to Be Sought
Citing Paul's word that willing is within reach but accomplishing good is not, Bernard interprets the psalmist's plea as a prayer to be sought by God so that the one who gives the will may also give its fulfillment.
The will goes flat where the ability is lacking. For he says: the will is within my reach, but I don't find it in myself to accomplish the good. What, then, is the one we brought in from the psalm seeking? Nothing other than to be sought — one who wouldn't seek unless he had already been sought, and who wouldn't seek again if he had been sought enough. And this is what he asks for: 'Seek,' he says, 'your servant,' so that the one who gave the will may also give the accomplishment for a good will.
Remembering We Were Loved First
Bernard addresses souls who desire but lack strength, urging them only to remember they were sought and loved first, and he prays that divine mercy may anticipate the community's poverty, distinguishing those who seek Christ in simplicity from those who seek themselves.
And yet it doesn't seem to me that this present passage can belong to that kind of soul—one that has not yet received a second grace. It wants to, certainly, but isn't strong enough to approach the one whom its soul loves.✦ For how can what follows there be fitting for her—rising up and going about the city, and searching through the streets and open squares for the beloved—when she herself needs to be sought?✦ Let her do what she can: let her simply remember that she was sought first, just as she was also loved first; and from there let her be, and let her remember what she seeks and what she loves. Let us pray too, very dear friends, that these mercies may quickly anticipate us, because we have become exceedingly poor—and I don't say this about all of you. For I know that very many of you are walking in the love with which Christ loved us, and seeking him in the simplicity of your hearts.✦ But there are some—and it grieves me to say this—who have not yet given any sign of this so salutary anticipation, or of their own salvation: people who love themselves, not the Lord, and who seek their own things, not the things of the Lord.✦
Love Draws Us to Seek
Returning to the Bride's words, Bernard teaches that love is the cause of seeking and seeking is the fruit of love, so that the soul who has been both loved and sought gains confidence to seek the beloved without fear or shame.
"I sought," she says, "the one my soul loves.✦ Surely it's the kindness of the one who anticipated you that draws you here—he who sought you first and loved you first.✦ By no means—you wouldn't seek unless you had first been sought, just as you wouldn't love unless you had first been loved. You are anticipated not in just one blessing but in two—love and seeking. Love is the cause of seeking; seeking is the fruit of love—and its assurance. You are loved, so you won't be suspected of having been sought only for punishment; you are sought, so you won't complain that your loving was in vain. Each, once found so welcoming, gave boldness and put shame to flight, persuaded the return and stirred the heart. This is the zeal, this burning desire to seek the one your soul loves—because truly, once sought yourself, you were able to seek; and now that you have been sought, you are able to seek.
The Shameless Bride Who Dares Return
In a vivid personification of the soul as an unfaithful wife, Bernard confronts her infidelity and shame, yet she answers with holy confidence born of love, daring to return precisely because she knows she is loved.
But don't forget where you've come from. And so that I may reshape these words to apply more directly to myself — for that's safer — tell me, is it you, my soul, who, having left your former husband, with whom things had gone well for you, broke your first pledge, and went chasing after your lovers? And now that you've lain with them to your heart's content, and perhaps been scorned by them too, do you — shameless and brazen — dare to want to return to the one you proudly scorned? What? Fit only for hiding-places, yet you seek the light; you run to the bridegroom — though you deserve blows more than kisses? It would be no surprise if, instead of a bridegroom, you find you've offended a judge. Happy the one who hears his own soul answering back to these things. I'm not afraid, because I love; and if I were not truly loved, I would not do this at all. And so, love as well.
Confidence Born of Mutual Love
Bernard declares that those who love need not fear, because the soul that loves cannot doubt it is loved in return, and the very fact that God sought her and moved toward her gives her boldness to answer his seeking.
There's nothing to fear in what is loved. Let those who don't love be afraid. Why wouldn't they constantly suspect hostility? But I love, and I can't doubt that I'm loved — any more than I can doubt that I love. And I can't be afraid of a face whose heart I've come to know. In what way? In this: that he not only sought someone like me, but also moved toward me — and by that very seeking made me certain of it. Why shouldn't I answer in my seeking, when he answers me in his love?
The Kindness of the Seeking Word
Bernard reassures the soul that the Word will not reject a seeker, since even the contemptuous are actively sought, and the Holy Spirit reveals God's thoughts of peace, giving courage to those who have experienced divine mercy.
Will the one who was sought after grow angry, when even in being disregarded he looked the other way? No, he won't reject the one who seeks him, when he even actively seeks out the one who holds him in contempt. The Spirit of the Word is kind, and it speaks kindly to me, making known and persuading me about the Word's zeal and desire — something that surely can't be hidden from him. It searches the depths of God, aware of the thoughts he thinks — thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. Why shouldn't I take courage in seeking him, having experienced his mercy and been convinced of his peace?
Sending Beginners to Christ and Scripture
Bernard turns to pastoral care for beginners, directing them to Christ whom they should not distrust and to Scripture where they may read what they do not yet perceive in the bride's heart, applying the prophetic image of the divorced wife who defiles herself with other lovers.
Brothers, being urged by the Word to be sought is one thing; being persuaded — being found — is another. But not everyone receives this word. What are we to do for our little ones — I mean those who are still beginners among us, yet not foolish, since they hold the beginning of wisdom, subject to one another in the fear of Christ? How can we give them credit — I'm speaking of those who haven't yet perceived such things happening within themselves — that these things are so in the bride? But I'm sending them to someone they shouldn't distrust. Let them read in the book what they don't believe is in another's heart, because they don't perceive it. It is written in the prophets: If a man dismisses his wife, and she leaves and marries another man, will she ever return to him again?✦ Won't that woman be defiled and polluted?✦
Return to the Lord Who Waits
Bernard closes with the Lord's own promise through Hosea to take back the soul that has given itself to many lovers, urges faith in what has not yet been experienced, and looks forward to the next treatise on thirsting souls seeking the bridegroom, ending with a doxological Amen.
But you've given yourself to many lovers — and yet, return to me, says the Lord, and I'll take you back.✦4 These are the Lord's words: it isn't right to set faith aside.5 Let them believe what they have not yet experienced, so that in time they may rightly come to know the fruit that comes through experiencing faith.6 I think I've made clear enough what it means to seek from the Word, and that this necessity lies not with the Word but with the soul — unless it's that the soul knows these things more fully and more joyfully because it has experienced them.7 It remains for us, in the next treatise, to teach thirsting souls to seek the one by whom they've been sought — or rather, to learn this from her who is presented here as seeking him whom her soul loves: Jesus Christ our Lord, the bridegroom of the soul, who is God over all, blessed forever.✦8 Amen.
Read the original Latin
In lectulo meo per noctes quaesivi quem diligit anima mea. Magnum bonum quaerere Deum. Ego hoc nulli in bonis animae secundum existimo. Primum in donis, ultimum in profectibus est. Virtutum nulli accedit, cedit nulli. Cui accedat, quam nulla praecedit? cui cedat, quae omnium magis consummatio est? Quae enim virtus ascribi possit non quaerenti Deum, aut quis terminus quaerenti Deum?
Quaerite, inquit, faciem eius semper. Existimo quia nec cum inventus fuerit, cessabitur a quaerendo. Non pedum passibus, sed desideriis quaeritur Deus. Et utique non extundit desiderium sanctum felix inventio, sed extendit. Nunquid consummatio gaudii, desiderii consumptio est? Oleum magis est illi: nam ipsum flamma. Sic est. Adimplebitur laetitia; sed desiderii non erit finis, ac per hoc nec quaerendi.
Tu vero cogita, si potes, quaeritandi hoc studium sine indigentia, et desiderium sine anxietate. Alterum profecto praesentia, alterum copia excludit.
Nunc iam videte cur ista praemiserim. Nimirum, ut omnis inter vos anima quaerens Deum, ne magnum bonum in magnum sibi detorqueat malum, noverit se praeventam in illo, et ante quaesitam quam quaerentem. Sic enim de magnis bonis mala oriri non minima solent, cum facti eximii de bonis Domini, utimur donis tanquam non datis, non damus gloriam Deo. Ita profecto qui maximi videbantur pro accepta gratia, pro non redhibita minimi reputantur apud Deum. Ego autem parco vobis. Usus sum modestioribus vocibus, maximo, minimoque; sed quod sentio non expressi. Discrimen involvi, ipse nudabo: optimum, pessimumque dixisse debueram. Nam vere et absque dubio, eo quisque pessimus, quo optimus est, si hoc ipsum quo est optimus, ascribat sibi.
Nempe pessimum hoc. Quod si dicat quis: Absit! agnosco, gratia Dei sum id quod sum; studeat autem captare gloriolam pro gratia quam accepit; nonne fur est et latro? Audiat qui eiusmodi est: Ex ore tuo te iudico, serve nequam. Quid nequius servo usurpante sibi gloriam domini sui?
In lectulo meo per noctes quaesivi quem diligit anima mea. Quaerit anima Verbum, sed quae a Verbo prius quaesita sit. Alioquin semel a facie Verbi egressa vel eiecta, non revertetur oculus eius ut videat bona, si non requiratur a Verbo. Quasi vero aliud anima nostra sit, quam spiritus vadens et non rediens, si sibi fuerit derelicta. Audi profugam et deviam, quid doleat, et quid petat. Erravi, ait, sicut ovis quae periit: quaere servum tuum. O homo, redire vis? Sed si in voluntate res est, quid opem flagitas?
quid aliunde mendicas, in quo abundas tu tibi? Palam est, quia vult, et non potest: sed spiritus est vadens et non rediens, etsi is sit longius agens, qui nec vult. Quanquam non omnino illam animam expositam dixerim vel relictam, quae reverti cupit, et requiri petit. Unde enim voluntas haec illi? Inde, ni fallor, quod a Verbo visitata iam sit et quaesita. Nec otiosa quaesitio, quae operata est voluntatem, sine qua reditus esse non poterat. Sed non sufficit semel quaeri: tantus est animae languor, tantaque in reditu difficultas. Quid enim si vult?
Iacet voluntas, ubi facultas non suppetit. Nam: Velle adiacet mihi, inquit, perficere autem bonum non invenio. Quid ergo ille, quem de psalmo induximus, quaerit? Non plane aliud, quam quaeri: quod non quaereret, nisi quaesitus fuisset; et rursum non quaereret, si quaesitus satis fuisset. Quod et postulat: Quaere, inquiens, servum tuum; ut qui dedit velle, det et perficere pro bona voluntate.
Mihi tamen non videtur istius modi animae posse competere locus praesens, quae secundam gratiam necdum percepit, volens quidem, sed non valens adire quem diligit anima sua. Nam quomodo potest illi convenire quod ibi sequitur, surgere et circuire civitatem, sed et per vicos et plateas quaerere dilectum, quae eget ipsa quaeri? Faciat hoc quae potest: tantum se meminerit quaesitam prius, sicut et prius dilectam; atque inde esse, et quod quaerit, et quod diligit. Oremus et nos, charissimi, ut cito anticipent nos misericordiae istae, quia pauperes facti sumus nimis: quod non de omnibus vobis dico. Scio enim quamplurimos vestrum ambulantes in dilectione, qua Christus dilexit nos, et in simplicitate cordis quaerentes illum. Sed sunt aliqui, quod tristis dico, qui nullum nobis adhuc in se dedere indicium huius tam salutaris anticipationis, ac per hoc nec suae salutis: homines se ipsos amantes, non Dominum; et quaerentes quae sua sunt, non quae Domini.
Quaesivi, ait illa, quem diligit anima mea. Nempe huc te provocat anticipantis benignitas illius, qui te et prior quaesivit, et prior dilexit. Minime prorsus nisi prius quaesita quaereres, sicut nec diligeres nisi dilecta prius. Non in una tantum benedictione, sed in duabus praeventa es, dilectione et quaesitione. Dilectio causa quaesitionis; quaesitio fructus dilectionis est et certitudo. Dilecta es, ne ad supplicium potius quaesitam suspiceris; quaesita es, ne frustra dilectam conqueraris. Utraque tam amica comperta suavitas et ausum dedit, et verecundiam depulit, et reditum persuasit, et movit affectum. Hinc zelus, hinc ardor iste quaerendi quem diligit anima tua; quia profecto necnon quaesita quaerere poteras, necnon quaerere quaesita nunc potes.
Sed noli oblivisci unde huc veneris. Et ut in me potius transfigurem quae dicuntur, id enim tutius, tune es, o anima mea, quae relicto viro tuo priore, cum quo tibi bene fuerat, primam fidem irritam fecisti, iens post amatores tuos? Et nunc quoad libuit fornicata cum illis, forte et contempta ab illis, audes impudens et frontosa velle reverti ad illum, quem superba contempsisti? Quid? digna latebris quaeris lucem, et curris ad sponsum, dignior plagis, quam osculis? Mirum si non pro sponso iudicem offendas. Felix, qui ad haec animam suam respondentem audierit: Non timeo, quia amo; quod non amata omnino non facerem. Itaque etiam amor.
Nihil dilectae timendum. Paveant quae non amant. Quidni assidue inimicitias suspicentur? Ego vero amans, amari me dubitare non possum, non plus quam amare. Nec possum vereri vultum, cuius sensi affectum. In quo? In eo quod talem non modo quaesivit, sed et affecit, fecitque certam proinde de quaesitu. Quidni respondeam in quaesitu, cui in affectu respondeo?
Nunquid irascetur quaesitus, qui etiam contemptus dissimulavit? Quinimo non repellet requirentem, qui et contemnentem requirit. Benignus est spiritus Verbi, et benigna nuntiat mihi, intimans et suadens de Verbi zelo desiderioque, quod utique sibi non potest esse absconditum. Scrutatur alta Dei, conscius earum, quas cogitat cogitationes pacis, et non afflictionis. Quidni animer ad quaerendum, experta clementiam, et persuasa de pace?
Fratres, hoc suaderi, a Verbo quaeri est; persuaderi, inveniri est. Sed non omnes capiunt hoc verbum. Quid faciemus parvulis nostris, illos loquor, qui adhuc inter nos incipientes sunt, non tamen insipientes, cum teneant initium sapientiae, subiecti invicem in timore Christi? Unde illis, inquam, facimus fidem, quod haec ita se habeant penes sponsam, cum ipsi talia agi secum necdum persenserint? Sed mitto eos ego ad talem, cui decredere non debeant. Legant in libro, quod in corde altero quia non cernunt, non credunt. Est scriptum in prophetis: Si dimiserit vir uxorem suam, et illa recedens duxerit virum alium, nunquid revertetur ad eam ultra? nunquid non polluta et contaminata erit mulier illa?
Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis: et tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus, et ego suscipiam te. Verba Domini sunt: non est fas suspendere fidem. Credant quod non experiuntur, ut fructum quandoque experientiae fidei merito consequantur. Satis arbitror declaratum, quid sit quaeri a Verbo, et quae haec sit necessitas non Verbo, sed animae, nisi quod quae experta est, et plenius ista novit, et felicius. Restat ut sequenti tractatu doceamus sitientes animas quaerere a quo quaesitae sunt, vel potius id discamus ab illa, quae hoc loco inducitur quaerens ipsum, quem diligit anima sua, sponsum animae Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Song.3.1 — On my bed, night after night, I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.
- ↩1Cor.15.10 — But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain; but I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
- ↩Luke.19.22 — He said to him, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I am a harsh man, picking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow.
- ↩Song.3.1 — On my bed, night after night, I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.
- ↩Song.1.7 — Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?
- ↩Song.3.2 — I will rise now and go about the city, through the streets and through the squares; I will seek the one my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.
- ↩John.15.12;Eph.5.2 — This is my commandment: that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Eph.5.2 — and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma
- ↩Phil.2.21 — For all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
- ↩Song.3.1 — On my bed, night after night, I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.
- ↩1John.4.19 — We love because he first loved us.
- ↩Mal.2.16 — "For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful."
- ↩Mal.2.16 — "For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful."
- ↩Hos.2.7 — For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'
- ↩Song.3.1 — On my bed, night after night, I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.
Notes
- 1 ↩enim is explanatory, grounding the preceding series of claims about seeking God as the supreme good; rendered as 'For' to preserve the logical force.
- 2 ↩The Latin is compressed and elliptical: praesentia and copia can be read as nominative subjects ('presence excludes one thing, abundance the other') or as ablatives of means ('one is excluded by presence, the other by abundance'). The nominative reading is adopted here, but the ablative reading is equally plausible and would yield: 'One is surely excluded by presence, the other by abundance.'
- 3 ↩The first clause echoes 1 Cor 15:10; 'gloriola' is a diminutive implying a petty or trivial glory.
- 4 ↩The Latin is a quotation from Hosea 2:7 (Vulgate): 'et tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus'. The prophetic image of spiritual adultery and restored covenant is central to the passage.
- 5 ↩'fas' rendered as 'right' to convey the sense of what is divinely permitted or fitting; 'suspendere fidem' rendered as 'set faith aside' to capture the idea of withholding trust.
- 6 ↩The ut clause is ambiguous between purpose and result; rendered as purpose. The phrase 'fructum experientiae fidei' is compressed — the sense is the fruit that arises from experiencing faith.
- 7 ↩The final clause is compressed: 'nisi quod quae experta est, et plenius ista novit, et felicius' — the 'nisi quod' introduces an exception or clarification: the soul that has experienced the Word knows these things more fully and more joyfully. The adverb 'felicius' modifies the soul's state, not a separate verb.
- 8 ↩The ut clause is ambiguous between complementizer ('that') and purpose ('so that'); rendered as complementizer introducing the content of what is to be taught. The passage transitions to Sermon 85 with the Song of Songs incipit.
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