Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Saints

and a certain relish of the mind, spurning the things of the present. Blessed are they who provide for the last things, receiving with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save their souls, and who with godliness of heart tend towards the inheritance to come. Blessed are they who, understanding their former error, wash their bed with frequent tears. Do you see what the holy man desires, what he longs to obtain for those for whom he prays? O that they were wise, he says, and understood, and would provide for their last end! As if he were to say more plainly: O that there were in them the spirit of wisdom and of understanding and of counsel! O that these may be found in us, brethren, so that we may order all our affairs sweetly through wisdom, condemn our past sins through understanding, and provide for the future by counsel! O that we may be wise for the governing of the present life! O that we may understand for the correction of the past! O that with devout faith in God we may provide, so that by His mercy we may have a happy end! For this is the threefold cord by which we are drawn to salvation: an ordered way of life, right judgement, devout faith.

SERMON III. On the reading from the book of Wisdom: “These are men of mercy.” (Sir. 44:10–11.)

1. Rightly, brethren, does Mother Church apply to the holy apostles what is read in the books of Wisdom: These are men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten: good things abide with their seed. For these are plainly men of mercy, whether because they obtained mercy, or because they were full of mercy, or because they were given to us mercifully by God. And see what mercy they obtained. Ask Paul about himself, or rather listen to him confessing of his own accord: I who was a blasphemer and a persecutor and unjust; but I obtained mercy (1 Tim. 1:13). For who has not heard how much evil he did to the saints in Jerusalem? And not only in Jerusalem, but through all Judaea he was carried along by the reins of madness, to tear the members of Christ on earth. In short, borne along by this fury he went, but he was forestalled by grace. He went breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, and he was made a disciple of the Lord, to whom it would be shown how much he must suffer for His name. He went breathing out dread poison from his whole body, and suddenly he was changed into a vessel of election, so that now his heart poured forth a good word, a godly word, and he said: Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? (Acts 4.) This assuredly, this is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High. Rightly therefore did he say: A faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that the Lord Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tim. 1:15). Take this, then, from blessed Paul for confidence and consolation, brethren, that the consciousness of past sins may not torment overmuch those already turned to the Lord, but only humble you, as it humbled him. I am, he says, the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor. 15:9). So let us too be humbled under the mighty hand of God, and let us have confidence, because we too have obtained mercy, we have been washed, we have been sanctified. And this indeed to all of us

because we have all sinned and are in need of this glory of God.

2. But in blessed Peter I have something else to add, the dearer for being rarer, and the more sublime for being more singular. For Paul sinned, but he did it ignorantly in his unbelief: Peter, when he fell, had his eyes open. And yet where sin abounded, there grace also abounded the more. For of those who sin before they have known God, before they have experienced His mercies, before they have borne the sweet yoke and the light burden, before they have received the grace of devotion and the consolations of the Holy Spirit, of these, I say, there is plenteous redemption. And such were we all. But of those who after their conversion are entangled in sins and vices, ungrateful for the grace received, and who after putting their hand to the plough look back, become lukewarm and carnal, or who after knowing the way of truth go backward as open apostates, of these you will find very few indeed who afterwards return to their former rank; rather, set in filth, they grow filthier still. Over them the prophet laments: How is the gold become dim, the finest colour changed? and: They that were brought up in scarlet have embraced dung (Lam. 4:1, 5).

3. Yet if anyone is of this kind, we do not despair of him, provided only that he is willing to rise again quickly. For the longer he remains, the harder he will escape. But blessed is he who shall take and dash the little ones of Babylon against the rock: for if they grow up, they can scarcely be overcome. My little children, these things I say that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, who can do what we can by no means do: only let him who has fallen not add evil to evil so as to fall more deeply, but rather let him rise again, trusting that pardon will not be denied him either, if only he confesses his sins from the heart. For if Peter, of whom we are speaking, after so grave a fall returned to so great an eminence of holiness, who henceforth should despair, if only he is willing to go out from his sins? Mark what is written: Going out, he wept bitterly (Matt. 26:75). In the going out understand the confession of the mouth, in the bitter weeping the compunction of the heart. And mark that it was then for the first time that he remembered the word which Jesus had spoken: then for the first time the word was laid to heart by which his weakness had been foretold, when his presumptuous rashness had vanished. Woe to you who after a fall show yourself to us as stronger. Why are you so stiff, to your own ruin? Bend rather, that you may be the better raised up, and do not forbid the breaking of what is crooked, that it may be the better set firm. Why are you indignant at the cock that rebukes you? Be indignant rather with yourself. A voluntary rain, says the Psalmist, Thou wilt set apart, O God, for Thine inheritance, and it was weakened. A good weakness, which is set apart for the inheritance, which does not drive away the physician. For the hardened He will break in pieces like a potter's vessel with a rod of iron: and the inheritance was weakened, he says, but Thou hast made it perfect (Ps. 67:10).

4. You have heard, surely, what mercy our apostles obtained, so that none of you may now be confounded over past sins beyond what is necessary, being pricked with compunction in the chamber of his own conscience. What

then? Perhaps you sinned in the world: more than Paul, surely not? And if even in religious life itself: more than Peter, surely not? Yet they, doing penance with their whole heart, obtained not only salvation but holiness as well; they gained even the ministry of salvation and the mastership of holiness. Do you then likewise, since it is for your sake that Scripture says that those men are men of mercy: surely because of the great mercy which they were found worthy to obtain.

5. Yet you may also, not unfittingly, take this word to mean that the apostles were men of mercy, that is, full of mercy; or men of mercy, that is, given mercifully to the whole Church. For we know that these men neither lived to themselves nor died to themselves, but to Him who died for them; and, more than that, to all of us for His sake. For how much will their righteousness profit us, when, as has been shown, even their sins have profited so much? Their life works for us, their teaching, and even their very death. For in their conversion the blessed apostles bestowed on us continence, in their preaching wisdom, in their passion patience. A fourth thing they do not cease to bestow to this day, being full of mercy, which is the fruit of their holy prayers. And yet in their life itself you may still find something to add to the count, namely the confidence which they gave us by the showing of miracles. And who could number how many benefits have come to us through them? Well then does Scripture say of them: For these are men of mercy; and it added: whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten (Sir. 44).

6. Do you wish that yours too should not be forgotten? Beware of a threefold danger, and it will flourish for ever before the Lord. For you read: Because you are lukewarm, I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth (Rev. 3:16); you read: If the just man turn away from his justice, etc., I will not remember all his justices (Ezek. 18:24); you read that to some it shall be said at the judgement: I know you not (Matt. 7:23), to those, no doubt, who have received their reward. Therefore all righteousness that is lukewarm, all that is passing, all that is sold, will be in oblivion before God. But not so the righteousness of the apostles. This appears clearly enough from what follows: Good things abide with their seed. For the footprints of the apostles abide in us to this day; and their religion, because it is from God, cannot be dissolved. The garments of the people of Israel lasted whole for forty years in the desert (Deut. 8:4); much more the garments of the apostles laid upon the Saviour's beast. With their seed, it says. What is the seed, seeing that he adds next: Their grandchildren are a holy inheritance? Surely the same are both seed and grandchildren. You remember, I think (for I speak to those who know the law), you remember, I say, the commandment of the law, that a surviving brother should raise up seed to a brother who died without seed (Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5). Who is without seed? I am alone, He says, until I pass (Ps. 140:10). And therefore, rising again, He says: Go, tell My brethren (John 20:17). As if He were to say: They are brethren; let them do what brethren do. Therefore through the Gospel

they themselves begot us; yet not for themselves but for Christ, because it was through the Gospel of Christ. Hence too Paul took it ill that some were said to belong to those by whom they had been begotten through the Gospel, being indignant against those who said: I am of Paul, I am of Cephas,

ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. SERMON I. On the twofold receiving, namely of Christ and of Mary.

1. The glorious Virgin, ascending today into the heavens, has without doubt heaped up the joys of the citizens on high with abundant increase. For she it is the voice of whose greeting makes even those exult with joy whom a mother's womb still encloses (Luke 1:41). And if the soul of a little one not yet born melted when Mary spoke, what do we think that exultation of the heavenly ones must have been, when they were found worthy both to hear her voice and to see her face and to enjoy her blessed presence? But for us, dearly beloved, what occasion of solemnity is there in her Assumption, what cause of gladness, what matter for joy? By Mary's presence the whole world is lit up, so much so that even the heavenly fatherland itself now glows more brightly, irradiated by the splendour of the virginal lamp. Rightly therefore does thanksgiving and the voice of praise resound on high; but for us it seems a matter rather for lamenting than for applauding. For as much as heaven exults in her presence, does it not follow that this lower world of ours should mourn her absence just as much? Yet let our complaint cease, for neither have we here an abiding city, but we seek that to which blessed Mary has come today. If we are enrolled as citizens in it, it is surely fitting that even in exile, even by the rivers of Babylon, we should remember it, share in its joys, partake of its gladness, and above all of that gladness which with so abundant a stream makes glad the city of God today, so that we too may feel the drops falling upon the earth. Our Queen has gone before us; she has gone before, and has been received so gloriously that her little servants may confidently follow their Lady, crying: Draw us after you; we will run to the odour of your ointments (Song 1:3). Our pilgrimage has sent ahead an advocate, who, as the mother of the Judge and the mother of mercy, will handle the business of our salvation suppliantly and effectively.

2. Today our earth has sent a precious gift to heaven, so that by giving and receiving, in a happy covenant of friendship, things human may be joined to things divine, earthly to heavenly, lowest to highest. For the sublime fruit of the earth has gone up thither whence the best gifts and the perfect gifts come down. Ascending on high, then, the blessed Virgin will herself also give gifts to men. Why should she not give? For neither the power nor the will can be wanting to her. She is Queen of the heavens; she is merciful; finally, she is the mother of the only-begotten Son of God. For nothing can so commend the greatness of her power or of her loving-kindness: unless perhaps it is not believed that the Son of God honours His mother, or someone can doubt that the womb of Mary has passed wholly into the affection of charity, that womb in which

I am of Apollo (1 Cor. 1:12; 1 Cor. 3:4); wishing rather that all should both be and be called Christ's. So we are the seed of the apostles through their preaching; but through adoption and inheritance we are the seed of Christ, and the grandchildren of the apostles.

the very charity that is from God rested bodily for nine months.

3. And these things I would say for our own sake, brethren, knowing how hard it is, in so great a poverty, for that perfect charity which seeks not its own to be found. Yet, to say nothing for the present of the benefits we obtain through her glorification, if we love her we shall surely rejoice because she goes to her Son. Yes, I say, we shall rejoice with her, unless perhaps (God forbid!) we be found altogether ungrateful to her who found grace. For He whom she herself first received as He entered the village of this world receives her today as she enters the holy city. But with how great honour, do you think, with how great exultation, with how great glory? There is on earth no worthier place than the temple of the virginal womb, in which Mary received the Son of God; nor in heaven than the royal throne on which Mary's Son has today raised Mary on high. Happy indeed is each receiving; each is ineffable, because each is beyond thought. For why is that Gospel reading recited today in the churches of Christ, in which the woman blessed among women is understood to have received the Saviour? I believe it is so that this receiving which we celebrate may be estimated in some measure from that one; nay rather, so that, in keeping with the inestimable glory of the one, this one too may be known to be inestimable. For who, even if he speak with the tongues of men and of angels, could unfold how, the Spirit coming upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, the Word of God, through whom all things were made, was made flesh; and how the Lord of majesty, whom the whole of creation does not contain, made man, enclosed Himself within a virgin's womb?

4. But who is able even to imagine how gloriously the Queen of the world went forth today, and with what affection of devotion the whole multitude of the heavenly legions came out to meet her; with what canticles she was led to the throne of glory; with what calm countenance, what serene face, what glad [alias, divine] embraces she was received by her Son and exalted above every creature, with that honour of which so great a mother was worthy, with that glory which so great a Son befitted? Happy indeed were the kisses pressed on the lips of the suckling, whom the mother caressed in her virginal lap. But shall we not judge happier those which today she received in blessed greeting from the mouth of Him who sits at the right hand of the Father, when she ascended to the throne of glory, singing the bridal song and saying: Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth? (Song 1:1.) Who shall declare the generation of Christ and the assumption of Mary? For as much as she obtained of grace on earth beyond the rest, so much too does she hold in heaven of singular glory. And if eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him, what He has prepared