This morning I'd eventually like to quote to you a warning made by St. Bernard concerning “a painting executed in thin air.” But first, the reading from the Book of Wisdom gives us the first brush strokes of a fine scriptural portrait of our great Cistercian father, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “I prayed and pleaded and the spirit of prudence and Wisdom came to me.” St. Bernard was indeed faithful to our common Christian vocation to become a holy people who pray to the Lord in all our needs: material and spiritual, for the coming of the Bridgroom of the Church and the fullness of the Kingdom of God. The Responsorial Psalm: “O God, you are my God—for you I long! For you my body yearns, for you my soul thirsts.” in this psalm we see the ardent desire for God mystically planted in Bernard's heart by the Lord God's own desire for him and for all of us who seek God in our Cistercian vocation and, indeed, all whose hearts are restless until they rest in God. The reading from Philippians brings to the protrait the remarkable theme of the Imitation of Christ, so important in Bernard's own life, as it should be in all our lives. After all, our Lord said to Bernard and to all of us, “Come follow me.” I will say more on that later.
The final reading, the Gospel about the salt of the earth and the light of the world describes our St. Bernard who gave such a flavor and illumination to the Christian world of the 12th century and through his writings and holy intercession gives flavor and light even to our own century: especially the flavor and light of devotion to the names and persons of Jesus and Mary. “Jesus,” he writes, “is honey in the mouth, song to the ear, and jubilation in the heart.” Of Mary he says in a homily, “In danger, in distress in uncertainty, think of Mary, call upon Mary. She never leaves your lips, and she never departs from your heart.” Through Bernard's abbatial service, the Abbey of Clairvaux, even though it was built in a valley of light, became the city on a spiritual mountain which could not be hidden.
In the Epistle to the Philippians we heard this morning, St. Paul exhorts the community saying, “Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us.” This could sound like an awful spiritual pride and be rather off-putting, if St. Paul had not told us in the passage before this one that “It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.” In First Corinthians, Paul says it all in a way that is clear and simple, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” And, finally, we have Paul saying in Gal. 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” It is the imitation of Christ to which St. Paul is exhorting his people. Paul's own life, apart from any words he might utter, is what proclaims the Gospel most clearly. It is what makes his words, and makes our words believable. It is like what St. Francis of Assisi told his disciples, “Go and proclaim the Gospel. Use words only if necessary.” This is what Pope Francis calls us to do in today's evangelization—proclaim the Gospel with our lives, not just words.
Now back to St. Bernard--he writes in the treatise on the Steps of Humility, “ As for me, when I did not yet know the truth, I thought myself to be something, whereas I was nothing. But after I believed in Christ by imitating His humility, I came to know the truth, and it was exalted in me through my own confession.” In a later sermon on the John 12, Bernard develops this theme of the imitation of Christ: “There are some who do not follow Christ, but flee from him... These do not obtain the reward; others truly follow the Lord and attain the goal... They follow and attain who, in a spirit of sincere devotion, perseveringly imitate his way of humility. The Lord has clearly indicated this in the following words: 'He who serves me must follow me,' that is to say, 'he must imitate me.' And what will be the result of this imitation? 'Wherever I am' he said, 'my servant will be there too.' The result of this imitation, therefore, is to abide in everlasting happiness.”
The worry that we moderns might have about the use of the word “imitation” which, to us, means “fake” is addressed by St. Bernard in much the same way that St. Paul insisted that his exhortation to imitate him was rooted in the fact that Paul was being transformed into another Christ by being “possessed by Christ Jesus.” Bernard explains himself on this point about “imitation” in a magnificent passage from the very obscure treatise “On the Errors of Peter Abelard.” This passage is the perfect preparation for our feast day celebration and reception of the Eucharist. Please notice the graphic powerful language he uses—language straight out of Chapter 6 of John that we have been meditating on so many Sundays lately. So I will now be silent and let Bernard prepare us for the Eucharistic sacrifice and our communion in it as he explains the source of his strength for the imitation of Christ:
“To be sure, the example of (Christ's) humility is great and very necessary, and great and very worthy to be accepted is the example of charity; but both are without foundation, and therefore without a secure position, if the redemption is lacking. I want to spare no effort to follow the humble Jesus; I desire to embrace him by rendering love for love to him who loved me and gave himself up for me; but I must eat the Paschal Lamb. Indeed, if I do not eat his flesh and drink his blood, I will not have life in me. It is one thing to follow Jesus, another to hold him fast, yet another to eat him. To follow him, this is counseled for salvation; to hold him and to embrace him, this is the joy of a feast day; to eat him, this is the life of beatitude (to eat him, this is the life of beatitude). His body is real food and his blood is real drink. He is the bread of life, come down from heaven, who gives life to the world. What secure position would joy or counsel have without life? Nothing more than a painting executed in thin air. Therefore, neither the examples of humility not the manifestations of charity are anything without the sacrament of redemption.”
