“Man’s greatest merit is to place all his hope in God” (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux).
These words of St Bernard turn the world view of the natural man on its head. We all have a tendency to base our worth on what we possess, what we know, what we achieve. It is not so easy to overcome this because we are surrounded by this mentality and we need a process until we can give our full consent to what St Bernard is telling us today.
What can help us in this process?
‘No one can be saved without self-knowledge, for from it comes the mother of salvation: humility’ (St. Bernard of Clairvaux).
Every teacher of the spiritual life praises self-knowledge, which, after the knowledge of God, is an indispensable tool on our path of following Christ.
‘In my love, I have taken possession of you. You are mine!’ (Inner word).
This is the depth of our Father’s love for us! For His love it is not enough to shower us with blessings and let us know in every possible way how much He cares for us and protects us. No, His love goes far beyond that. Our Father wants to unite with us forever and establish His dwelling place within us. The mystics have described this unification with God in sublime terms, and sometimes they could not even find words for how intoxicated they were with His love.
“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Eph 6:10).
These are the opening words of a series of spiritual counsels given by the Apostle Paul for perseverance in the battle entrusted to all who follow the Lord. It is an invitation to rely entirely on God and to leave behind the false security that comes from trusting in one’s own strength and abilities. We must understand and accept that God’s strength is above all in His love. It saves us from all dangers that we could never overcome on our own.
“Man must not anticipate the Providence that guides him” (St Vincent de Paul).
It is a spiritual art to be “in tune” with Divine Providence, or in other words, to follow in the footsteps of the Holy Spirit.
“O my Jesus, I know that in order to be useful to souls I must long for the most intimate union with You, Who are eternal Love” (St. Faustina Kowalska).
Our fruitfulness for the salvation of souls depends on the intimacy of our union with God. Every day we are invited to deepen our love for the Lord and thus to be ever more united with our heavenly Father. In fact, Jesus introduced us to this love, as He makes clear in His priestly prayer in the Gospel of John: “I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:26).
“Never let yourself be discouraged. Our eyes are on you, and we will not allow more to happen to you than you can bear” (Inner Word).
In our journey of following the Lord, situations may arise in which we need these words especially. Sometimes – or even often – our Father allows things to happen that are difficult to face, whether on a personal level or in the world and in the Church. These are crosses that we have to bear, the meaning of which we find difficult to understand and which we can only overcome through faith. In such circumstances it is easy to become discouraged. But when this happens, temptation has achieved one of its goals. A discouraged soldier of the Lord can easily be dissuaded from doing what those difficult circumstances would allow him to offer for the Kingdom of God. We must therefore accept crosses as coming from the hand of God, learn to bear them and make them fruitful. We can always ask the Lord to teach us.
“Never hesitate to speak the truth!” (Inner Word).
Truth is an invaluable commodity. Without it, everything is blurred and reality takes on illusory features. As Christians, we have had the joy of knowing the One who is truth itself (Jn 14:6) and who comes to us from the throne of the Father. Before the procurator Pilate, Jesus declared: “For this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37), that is, to proclaim the Heavenly Father from whom all things come.
“No one is excluded from my love; all are called and invited. But they must put on the wedding garment that my Son has given to humanity” (Inner Word).
Our Father’s Heart is open to all people, no one is excluded from His love! All are called to approach the throne of His mercy. That is why the Father sends His messengers to make His love known to mankind. But although this love is boundless and inexhaustible, there is a condition for man to be able to receive it and live in it. He must put on the wedding garment of the Lamb, which the Lord acquired for mankind on the Cross, thus fully fulfilling the Will of the Heavenly Father.
“It is better to burn than to know” (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux).
Saint Bernard, an ardent preacher, proclaims here the primacy of love. He was able to inflame his listeners with the love of God and to present the monastic life to them in such an attractive way, with all the praises imaginable, that mothers began to hide their children from him so that they would not all follow him to the monastery.
