St. Bernard on the Glorious Form of Jesus
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The quotation cited here is taken from St. Bernard's Sermons On The Canticle Of Canticles: Volume 2.
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TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN BY A PRIEST OF MOUNT MELLERAY
VOLUMES 1 & 2. BROWNE AND NOLAN, LIMITED
ST. BERNARD, O.CIST. Doctor of the church
TO THE MOST REVEREND BERNARD HACKETT, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF WATERFORD AND LISMORE, THIS TRANSLATION OF THE SERMONS OF ST. BERNARD ON THE CANTICLE OF CANTICLES IS HUMBLY AND RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED…
Or perhaps by calling Him “fair and comely” she designs to teach us that the two Natures of Christ are endowed with a loveliness worthy of all admiration. His Divinity being beautiful by essence, His Humanity by grace. How beautiful Thou art to Thy angels, Lord Jesus, “in the Form of God,” “in the day of Thy eternity,” “begotten before the daystar in the splendours of the Saints,” Thyself the “Splendour” and the “Figure” of the Father’s Substance, the everlasting and unspotted “Brightness of Eternal Life”! Yet how beautiful dost Thou appear to us in the very laying aside of Thy immortal glory! For when Thou, Who art the Light Unfailing, didst strip Thyself of Thy natural rays, when Thou didst empty Thyself, “taking the form of a servant,” then Thy loving-kindness became more clearly manifest, then Thy charity shone forth more brightly, then Thy grace was more lavishly poured out.
How brilliant a Star dost Thou arise for me “out of Jacob”! How bright a Flower comest Thou forth “from the root of Jesse”! How gladdening a Light hast Thou shone upon me out of darkness, the “Orient from on high”! How glorious, how stupendously grand dost Thou appear, even to the contemplation of the powers supernal, in Thy conception by the Holy Ghost, in Thy birth of the Virgin Mary, in the innocence of Thy life, in the purity and abundance of Thy doctrine, in the splendour of Thy miracles, in Thy revelation of heavenly secrets! How resplendent after Thy setting didst Thou rise from the heart of the earth, as the Divine Sun of Justice! How beautiful in the robe of Thy glorified Flesh didst Thou, the King of Glory, return to Thy throne on high! And as I ponder on these sacred mysteries, surely “all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like to Thee?”
You may suppose, then, my brethren, that the Spouse had been admiring those and similar glories in her Bridegroom when she exclaimed, “Behold Thou art fair, my Beloved, and comely.” Nor was her contemplation confined to the grandeurs of His Humanity. There can be no doubt that something of the beauty of the higher Nature, which escapes our vision and transcends our experience, was also revealed to her gaze. Hence by the repetition, “fair and comely,” she desires to commend the loveliness of the two Natures. And hear how she exults at the sight and the salutation of her Beloved, and sings to Him a nuptial song, inspired with the sentiments of most ardent affection. “Our bed is flourishing,” she cries, “the beams of our house are of cedar, our rafters of cypress trees.” But this love-song shall supply matter for the next discourse, so that, when rest has restored our mental vigour, we may be better disposed to “rejoice and be glad in it,” unto the praise and glory of the same Bridegroom, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen. (SERMON XLV)
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