Saint Bernard More Saints
From a Sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot (1090-1153)
I shall stand upon my watchtower
to see what the Lord will say to meWe read in the gospel that when the Lord was teaching his
disciples and urged them to share in his passion by the mystery of eating his body, some said: This is a hard saying; and from that time they no longer followed him. When he asked the disciples whether they also wished to go away, they replied: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
I assure you, my brothers, that even to this day it is clear to some that the words which Jesus speaks are spirit and life, and for this reason they follow him. To others these words seem hard, and so they look elsewhere for some pathetic consolation. Yet wisdom cries out in the streets, in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, to call back those who take this path.
Finally, he says: For forty years I have been close to this generation, and I said: They have always been fainthearted. You also read in another psalm: God has spoken once. Once, indeed, because for ever. His is a single, uninterrupted utterance, because it is continuous and unending.
He calls upon sinners to return to their true spirit and rebukes them when their hearts have gone astray, for it is in the true heart that he dwells and there he speaks, fulfilling what he taught through the prophet: Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
You see, my brothers, how the prophet admonishes us for our advantage: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. You can read almost the same words in the gospel and in the prophet. Forin the gospel the Lord says: My sheep hear my voice. And in the psalm blessed David says: You are his people (meaning, of course, the Lord's) and the sheep of his pasture. If today you hear his voice, harden not your
hearts.
Hear also the prophet Habakkuk. Far from hiding the Lord's reprimands, he dwells on them with attentive and anxious care. He says: I will stand upon my watchtower and take up my post on the ramparts, keeping watch to see what he will say to me and what answer I will make to those who try to confute me. I beg you, my brothers, stand upon our watchtower, for now is the time for battle. Let all our dealings be in the heart, where Christ dwells, in right judgment and wise counsel, but in such a way as to place no confidence in those dealings, nor rely upon our fragile defenses.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours - Office of ReadingsSaint Bernard (1090-1153) was born in 1090 near Dijon in
France to devout parents of the highest nobility of Burgundy. After a religious upbringing, he joined the Cistercian monks in 1111 and later was chosen abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux. St. Bernard is acclaimed as one of the most commanding Church leaders in the first half of the twelfth century and is considered one of the greatest spiritual masters of all time. He was sought out as an advisor and mediator by the ruling powers of his age. The cloistered monastic community endured the voluntary austerities of poverty, prayer and fasting all for the salvation of souls. Bernard personally saw to the establishment of sixty-five of the three hundred Cistercian monasteries founded during his thirty-eight years as abbot, yet he found time to compose many and varied spiritual works still studied by theologians and spiritual writers today. He directed his companions in the practice of virtue by his own good example.
Because of various schisms which had arisen in the Church, Bernard traveled throughout Europe restoring peace and unity. He also had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and it was said of him that no one spoke more sublimely of the Queen of Heaven. He developed close friendships with contemporaries and even popes. The passing of Pope Eugenius was one whom he considered his greatest friend and consoler. Bernard died in 1153 at the age of sixty-thee, after forty years spent in the cloister. He was the first Cistercian monk placed on the calendar of saints. He was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1174 and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius VIII.