“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.
There is no doubt that knowledge is a great good, and this sentence does not question that. But there is a hierarchy of values. Who is not familiar with St Paul’s praise of love (1 Cor 13)? Love is so essential that only through it do the other gifts acquire their true splendour. Without it, they are worthless. Have we not experienced it in sermons or homilies, however learned? If they lack the fire of love, they do not touch our hearts, they do not awaken us and move us to a deeper conversion.
In this way we can understand St Bernard’s words, for “our knowledge is imperfect” (1 Cor 13:9). Faith and hope will find their fulfilment in eternity, but “love never ends” (v. 8). On the contrary, it always grows.
That is why it is important that we strive first of all for love and that we come to know more deeply the love that the heavenly Father offers us day by day.
St Paul exhorts us: “Make love your aim” (1 Cor 14:1). By giving it first place, we awaken to true life, because love is the reason for our existence. When we discover it, we will not let go of it until it has completely inflamed us, so that all our thoughts and actions are permeated by it.
It is undoubtedly a progressive path, but blessed is the one who treads it and seeks more to burn than to know!