The Wisdom of Saints: St Bernard of Clairvaux

The Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, France, Doctor and Poet, 1153

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Bernard, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Bernard of Clairvaux was a 12th century French abbot. Born to a noble family in 1090, he received an excellent quality education during which he developed a love of reading Holy Scripture. Still at a young age, he became concerned with avoiding the snares and temptations of worldly life, and felt drawn to an ascetic and monastic lifestyle that would help him avoid that. Upon the death of his mother, he joined a relatively newly formed monastic order. It followed a reformed version of the Benedictine rules, and the Order became known as the Cistercians due to their founding at Cîteaux Abbey. In his early years at Cîteaux he impressed his monastic superiors with his devotion and spiritual growth, and was soon sent, with a dozen other monks, to Clairvaux Abbey where he was soon appointed Abbot.

In his career as Abbot of Clairvaux, he founded a number of other Cistercian monasteries and wrote a number of works which survive to this day. While he is perhaps today most famous for his writings, in the 12th century he was a well-known figure throughout the Church and in particular in France where he resided and was involved in defending the Church against the state and becoming involved in some of the political struggles of the Church, as well becoming a standard bearer for the Second Crusade throughout France and Germany at the request of Pope Eugene III, a fellow Cistercian. The failure of the Second Crusade led to a decline in Bernard’s reputation, and he died soon after in 1153. His reputation recovered after his death, however, and he was canonized in 1174 and made a Doctor of the Church, recognized as a Teacher of the Faith in the Anglican tradition, in 1830.

One of his key works was De diligendo Dei (On Loving God) which discussed the nature of love, God’s love for man, the debt of love owed to God and why we ought to love Him, and is perhaps best remembered for his introduction of the concept of the four degrees of love, which describes the pilgrimage which all Christians proceed through in their growing love for God.

In the first degree of love, man loves oneself for self’s sake. St Bernard summarizes this love thusly:

because love is natural, it is only right to love the Author of nature first of all. Hence comes the first and great commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' But nature is so frail and weak that necessity compels her to love herself first; and this is carnal love, wherewith man loves himself first and selfishly, as it is written, 'That was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual,' (I Cor. 15. 46).

In this natural order, man does not truly know God, and therefore is stuck at the base level of loving himself before being able progress towards loving the Author of love, as St Bernard puts it. St Bernard goes even further, suggesting that this stage is not only natural but almost required. He argues that when in times of trouble we call upon the Lord for strength, we ultimately come to glorify him for answering our call. “loving only himself, begins to love God by reason of that very self-love; since he learns that in God he can accomplish all things that are good, and that without God he can do nothing.”

As is alluded to, this leads to the second degree of love, love of God for self’s sake. Even the hardest heart, contends St Bernard, would become “softened by the goodness of such a Savior, so that he would love God not altogether selfishly, but because He is God?” Put otherwise, the distinction between the first and second degrees of love is always for self’s sake, but during the first degree one has not yet begun to shift love of self to love of God for what he has done.

It is the third degree of love in which love becomes love of God for God’s sake, rather than our own. As St Bernard puts it, “Whosoever praises God for His essential goodness, and not merely because of the benefits He has bestowed, does really love God for God's sake, and not selfishly.” More simply, the third degree of love comes when we love God for who He is and not merely because of what He has done for us.

The fourth, and final, degree of love is loving oneself for God’s sake. This is a simple and contemporary translation of St Bernard’s four degrees, but interestingly a more direct translation taken straight from the chapter title would read, “the fourth degree of love: wherein man does not even love self save for God's sake.” This degree of love is perhaps the most difficult to understand when just viewing the summary, but St Bernard’s meaning is clear in his own explanation:

In Him should all our affections centre, so that in all things we should seek only to do His will, not to please ourselves. And real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining transient pleasures, but in accomplishing God's will for us: even as we pray every day: 'Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven' (Mt. 6. 10)

The fourth degree of love comes when we truly turn our lives to God such that we love Him unconditionally and, “trampling down,” as St John Chrysostom’s Divine Liturgy says, “all carnal desires, we may enter upon a spiritual manner of living, thinking and doing such things as are well pleasing to [God].” The love of oneself comes not for any remotely selfish purpose, but rather it is a reflection of God’s unconditional love for us which is reflected through our imperfect attempt at unconditional love for Him.

Through his four degrees of love, St Bernard of Clairvaux displays both his insights into the nature of love and human nature itself. He provides us with a standard and roadmap by which we can judge our own degree of love for God and guide ourselves to a deeper love of Him.