De modo humanae vitae tractare incipiens, quae sit in naturali ordine servanda sobrietas ostendit
The Three Orders of Human Life
Bernard introduces three orders of human life—natural, necessary, and voluntary—distinguishing their origin, obligation, and the spiritual response each demands.
So there are three orders of human life: the first is natural, the second necessary, the third voluntary. The first is granted, the second is imposed, the third is offered.1 The first comes from ability, the second from necessity, the third from choice. To the first, grace is owed; to the second, mercy; to the third, glory. But let us set out, as clearly as we can, what seems should be said about each one.
The Natural Order: Lawful Use of Created Goods
The natural order grants freedom to use lawful things—meat, wine, marriage, wealth—so long as they are received with thanksgiving, as the Apostle teaches.
The natural order is this: whoever has done nothing unlawful is free, if they wish, to use lawful things — and to do so lawfully. These things are lawful: for example, eating meat, drinking wine, the marriage relationship, and the possession of wealth. For as the Apostle says: "All things are clean to the clean, and nothing is to be rejected when it is received with thanksgiving" (Titus).✦2
Guarding Against Heresy and Excess
Bernard warns that lawful use requires sobriety of measure, citing Christ's warning against surfeiting and Paul's teaching on marriage, while condemning heretics who forbid what God created.
i). For heretics are also judged by the Apostle himself — those who forbid marriage and order abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful (1 Tim.✦ iv). But in order that the use of these things may be lawful, a measure must be observed: time, place, and kind must be attended to more carefully. The Savior himself prescribes a certain measure to be kept by all and not to be exceeded in any way whatever: 'Be careful,' he says, 'lest your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life' (Luke✦ xxi). And concerning the use of marriage, Paul says: 'Let each one know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of desire' (1 Thess.✦ iv).
The Standard of Moderation in All Things
A comprehensive rule of sobriety is set forth for food, wealth, marriage, and clothing, calling each person to hold themselves within bounds.
Peter, too, describes the use of garments: "Not," he says, "in costly clothing" (1 Tim.✦ 2). In the use of things that are permitted, then, this is the standard to keep: let each person hold himself within bounds in the taking of food and drink, below surfeit and drunkenness; in the keeping of wealth, let him put away anxious worry; in the use of a spouse, let him avoid shameful passions; in the adornment of garments, let him look not to price but to necessity.
Observing Time, Place, and Occasion
Sobriety requires attention to the right time—liturgical seasons, days of prayer and rest—and to the right place, as Paul rebukes the Corinthians for disorderly feasting in sacred assembly.
But the right time for each use must also be observed. For example, in those seasons when church tradition enjoins abstinence from certain foods, fasting should not be broken without good reason; in times set aside for prayer, marital relations should not be exercised; on days which Christian authority has set apart for wholesome rest and for hearing the word of God, one should not be absorbed in worldly concerns; and on days when sacred religion has established that grief or penitence should be shown by a change of clothing, no one should misuse festive garments on solemn occasions. Likewise, place is necessarily provided for in every use. For who would not consider it sacrilege to spend time in church feasting, or with one's spouse, or conducting business? Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle reproves them for not having kept the proper time in the taking of food and drink: "When you come together," he says, "it is not now the Lord's Supper that you eat. For each one goes ahead with his own supper" (1 Cor.✦ 11).
Proper Distinction of Kind: Idol Offerings and Stolen Goods
Beyond time and place, sobriety demands discernment of kind: one must abstain from food offered to idols or obtained by theft, not because creation is unclean, but to avoid complicity in impiety and scandal to the weak.
For they failed to observe the proper time — those who, before receiving Communion, presumed to eat ordinary food against the apostolic precepts. And rebuking those same people for their disregard of proper measure, he added: 'One is hungry, and another is drunk.'✦ . Then, reproaching them for their contempt of place: 'Don't you have homes,' he says, 'for eating and drinking, or do you despise the Church of God?'✦ (ibid.) Finally, regarding those things which it is lawful to use, a more careful distinction of kind is needed — not because any of God's creatures is unclean or believed to be so without sacrilegious impiety, but because of those things known to have been offered in sacrifices to demons, or shown to have been taken by theft or plunder, sacred authority compels us to abstain, lest their use appear to be a sharing in impiety, whether by the wicked or by the weak.✦✦ Hence the Apostle: 'If anyone says, "This has been offered to idols," do not eat it.'✦ x).
Tobias as Model and Transition to the Necessary Order
The blind but clear-sighted Tobias exemplifies scrupulous discernment in refusing stolen goods, and Bernard concludes his treatment of the natural order before turning to the necessary.
Consider holy Tobias. When he heard the bleating of the livestock his wife had brought home as payment for his work — though blind in body, he was clear-sighted in mind — he feared that through a fellow citizen's wrongdoing he might bring on himself the stain of eating what was unlawful. "Be careful," he said, "that it is not stolen" (Tobit 2). 2. So much for the natural order. In treating it, we have not listed everything that people lawfully make use of; still, a careful reader will gather from what has been said what standard of moderation should be observed in other matters as well. Now let us turn briefly to what concerns the necessary order.
Read the original Latin
Igitur tres ordines humanae conversationis occurrunt, primus naturalis, secundus necessarius, tertius voluntarius. Primus conceditur, secundus indicitur, tertius offertur. Primus ex potestate, secundus ex necessitate, tertius ex voluntate. Primo debetur gratia, secundo misericordia, tertio gloria. Sed de singulis quam lucide possumus, quae dicenda videntur, exsequamur. Est autem ordo naturalis, ut qui nulla commisit illicita, si velit ipse licitis utatur, licite tamen. Est autem licitus, verbi gratia, esus carnium, vini potus, usus conjugii, divitiarum possessio. Ut enim ait Apostolus : Omnia munda mundis ; et nihil rejiciendum, quod cum gratiarum actione accipitur (Tit.
i). Nam et haeretici ab ipso Apostolo judicantur, qui prohibent nubere, et jubent abstinere a cibis, quos Deus creavit ad percipiendum cum gratiarum actione fidelibus (I Tim. iv). Verum ut horum usus licitus sit, modus servandus est, tempus, locus, genus diligentius attendenda. Modum sane quemdam servandum omnibus, nec a quolibet pacto quolibet excedendum, Salvator ipse praescribens : Videte, inquit, ne graventur corda vestra in crapula et ebrietate, et curis hujus vitae (Luc. xxi). Et de usu conjugii ait Paulus : Sciat unusquisque suum vas possidere in sanctificatione et honore, non in passione desiderii (I Thess. iv).
Vestium quoque usum describens Petrus : Non in veste, inquit, pretiosa (I Tim. ii). In licitorum igitur usu hic modus servandus est, ut quis in cibi potusque perceptione infra crapulam et ebrietatem sese contineat, in divitiis servandis anxiam sollicitudinem tollat, in usu conjugis ignominiosas passiones evitet, in vestium cultu non pretium, sed necessitatem requirat. Sed et tempus congruum cujuslibet usui servandum est; ne, verbi gratia, his temporibus, quibus traditio ecclesiastica a cibis praecipit abstinere, jejunium sine rationabili necessitate solvatur; ne temporibus quibus orationi vacandum est, nuptialis usus exerceatur ; ne diebus quos salubri vacationi ad audiendum verbum Dei Christiana sacravit auctoritas, curis mundialibus insistatur; ne diebus, quibus dolorem vel poenitentiam vestium mutatione praeferre religio sacra constituit, solemnibus quis vestibus abutatur. Locus itidem in omni usu necessario providetur. Nam in Ecclesia vacare epulis, vel uti conjuge, vel exercere negotia, quis non sacrilegium judicet ? Corinthiis scribens Apostolus, in cibi potusque perceptione tempus legitimum eos arguit non servasse : Convenientibus, inquiens, vobis in unum, jam non est Dominicam cenam manducare ; unusquisque enim suam cenam praesumit ad manducandum (I Cor. xi).
Non enim tempus congruum observabant, qui ante perceptam Eucharistiam, communes cibos contra scita apostolica praesumebant. De modi quoque transgressione, eosdem ipsos inculpans, subjecit : Et alius quidem esurit, alius autem ebrius est (ibid.) . Deinde loci contemptum improperans : Nunquid domos, inquit, non habetis ad manducandum et bibendum, aut Ecclesiam Dei contemnitis? (ibid.) Postremo earum rerum, quibus, uti licitum est, genus subtilius discernendum, non quod aliquid creaturarum Dei immundum, sine sacrilega impietate credatur ; sed quia his, quae in daemoniorum sacrificiis noscuntur exhibita, vel aliis furto, vel rapina probantur ablata, ne eorum usus impiis, vel infirmis, impietatis videatur esse consensus, sacra nos abstinere compellit auctoritas. Unde Apostolus : Si quis dixerit : Hoc immolatum est idolis, nolite comedere (I Cor. x).
Tobias quoque sanctus cum balatum pecoris quod pro mercede operis uxor advexerat, oculis quidem captus, sed mente integra advertisset, timens ne civi injuriam, sibi maculam illicitus esus inveheret : Videte, inquit, ne furtivus sit (Tit. i). Haec de naturali ordine dicta sint, in quibus licet non omnia, quibus licite utuntur homines, adnotavimus; ex his tamen quis modus in ceteris servandus sit, diligens inquisitor inveniet. Jam nunc de ordine necessario aliqua perstringamus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Titus.1.15 — To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure — their mind and conscience are defiled.
- ↩1Tim.4.1-1Tim.4.5 — Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will abandon the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. 1Tim.4.2 — This will come through hypocritical liars, whose own consciences have been seared as with a hot iron, 1Tim.4.3 — who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 1Tim.4.4 — For every creation of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when it is received with thanksgiving. 1Tim.4.5 — For it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.
- ↩Luke.21.34 — But be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.
- ↩1Thess.4.3-1Thess.4.5 — For this is the will of God—your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality. 1Thess.4.4 — that each one of you know how to control your own vessel in sanctification and honor 1Thess.4.5 — not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who do not know God
- ↩1Tim.2.9 — Likewise also the women are to adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and self-control, not with braided gold or pearls or costly attire,
- ↩1Cor.11.20-1Cor.11.21 — When you come together as one, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. 1Cor.11.21 — For when you come together, each one takes his own supper ahead of the others; one goes hungry while another gets drunk.
- ↩1Cor.11.21 — For when you come together, each one takes his own supper ahead of the others; one goes hungry while another gets drunk.
- ↩1Cor.11.22 — Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? I do not commend you.
- ↩1Cor.8.4-1Cor.8.13 — Therefore, concerning the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. 1Cor.8.5 — For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as there are many gods and many lords— 1Cor.8.6 — yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 1Cor.8.7 — But not all have this knowledge. Some, however, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as though it were offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 1Cor.8.8 — But food will not commend us to God. If we do not eat, we are no worse off; and if we do eat, we are no better off. 1Cor.8.9 — But be careful that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 1Cor.8.10 — For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, reclining in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of the one who is weak be built up to eat food offered to idols? 1Cor.8.11 — For the one who is weak is destroyed by your knowledge, the brother for whom Christ died. 1Cor.8.12 — And so, when you sin against the brothers and strike their conscience while it is weak, you sin against Christ. 1Cor.8.13 — Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat, so that I do not cause my brother to stumble.
- ↩Acts.15.28-Acts.15.29 — For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: Acts.15.29 — to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality; if you keep yourselves from these things, you will do well. Farewell.
- ↩1Cor.10.28 — But if anyone says to you, 'This has been offered in sacrifice,' do not eat it, on account of the one who informed you and on account of conscience.
Notes
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
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