Sermon XX. On the Various Degrees and Characteristics of the Love of Christ

"Therefore young maidens have loved Thee exceedingly."

I will begin, my brethren, with the words of our master, St. Paul: "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema." Surely, He is most deserving of my love, from Whom I have existence, life, and understanding. If I be ungrateful for these benefits, I thereby prove myself unworthy of them. Evidently, he is unworthy to live at all, whoever, O Lord Jesus, refuses to live for Thee. Yea, he is already dead! And whoso has no understanding of Thee, is only a fool. And he that desires to exist save only for Thee, is to be esteemed as nothing, for nothing he is indeed. But "what is man" apart from the fact¹ "that Thou art made known to him"? Thou, O God, hast made all things for Thyself. Hence he must be nothing, as outside this universality of being, who wants to exist for himself and not for Thee. "Fear God and keep His commandments," says Solomon, "for this is all man." But if this is all man, it clearly follows that, without it, all man is nothing. Bend to Thyself, O my God, the insignificant little thing which Thou hast condescended to will I should be. Accept, I beseech Thee, the years that remain of my miserable life; and for those which I have squandered away by evil living, "a contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." "My days have declined like a shadow," and have passed without fruit. But as it is impossible now to recall them, let it content Thee, in Thy gracious mercy, that I recount them to Thee "in the bitterness of my soul." Then, as regards understanding, "before Thee is all my desire," and the intention of my heart. Thou seest that if I possessed any wisdom I would consecrate it to Thee. But, O God, "Thou knowest my foolishness." Still, perhaps it is some wisdom even to acknowledge my foolishness, as I do in truth by Thy grace. Multiply, O Lord, that grace in me, since I am not ungrateful for the little I already possess, but only anxious for that which is still wanting to me. Therefore, in return for the benefits of existence, life, and understanding, I offer Thee all the love I am capable of.

But there is another incentive to love which has still greater power to move, and to arouse, and to inflame me. What makes Thee, O good Jesus, amiable to me above all things is the chalice Thou didst drain for us, the work of our Redemption. This easily attracts to Thee all the love of our hearts. This it is, I say, which most sweetly allures our affectionate devotion, most justly exacts it, most forcibly constrains it, and most powerfully binds it to Thine own Divine Self. For therein the Saviour had to undergo immense labour. As Creator, the making of the whole universe did not cost Him the slightest effort. Of that rrrghty work we read "He spoke and they were made; He commanded and they were created." But in order to redeem us, it was necessary for Him to endure contradiction to His words, criticism of His actions, mockery in His sufferings, reproaches at His death. Behold, my brethren, how He loved us! Remember, too, that in this He was not making any return, but only a further advance of love. For "who hath first given to Him, and recompense shall be made to him?" Rather as St. John Evangelist says, "Not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us." Finally, He loved us even before we existed, and, what is more, loved us when we resisted His love. Such is the testimony of St. Paul, where he says, "when we were as yet enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." For otherwise, unless He loved us when we were His enemies, He never could have loved us as His friends; just as we should not have existed at all to be the objects of His love had His love not embraced us when as yet we were non-existent.²

His love for us is sweetly tender, and wise, and strong. It showed itself tender, I say, in that it induced Him to assume our flesh. Its wisdom appeared in His refusing to resemble us in sin. It manifested its strength by leading Him to die for us. Although visiting us in the flesh, He did not love us according to the flesh, but in the prudence of the Spirit. For "Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face," jealous of us "with the jealousy of God," not, mind you, with the jealousy of man, but "with the jealousy of God," a jealousy, therefore, wiser than that which the first Adam entertained with regard to the first Eve. Consequently, those whom He sought in the flesh, He loved in the Spirit, and redeemed in His power. It is assuredly a privilege full of divine sweetness, of inexpressible delight, that man should be permitted to see his Maker in the flesh. But whilst, with divine prudence, He chose for Himself a nature immune from guilt, He also with power equally divine, expelled death from that nature. In assuming flesh He condescended to my infirmity; in avoiding sin He looked to the interests of His own glory; in submitting to death, He made satisfaction to His Father's justice, thus exhibiting Himself as a sweet Friend, a prudent Counsellor, a powerful Helper. Securely may I entrust myself to Him, Who has the good will to save me, and the knowledge of the means to be employed, and the power to put them into execution. After seeking me out, after calling me to Him, think you He will cast me forth now when I am answering His summons? Neither do I fear that any force or fraud whatever shall be able to snatch me out of His hand, for He is the Conqueror of death which had conquered all beside, and, by a holier craft than Satan used, the Circumvent or of that old serpent who circumvented the whole world, surpassing the former in powei and the latter in wisdom. He took on Him indeed the reality of our flesh, but only the similitude of our sin, thus, at the same time, sweetly bringing consolation to the weak, and prudently laying the snare of deception for the demon.

Moreover, in order to reconcile us to the Father, He underwent and vanquished death by the might of His fortitude, shedding His Blood as the price of our Redemption. Hence, to sum up, had He not loved me with tender affection, that Divine Majesty would never have sought me in my prison. But to tenderness of love He united wisdom, whereby He deceived the serpent, and to both He added patience, by which He appeased the anger of His offended Father. Such, my brethren, are the characteristics of divine love, which I am under promise to explain, viz., to love with tenderness, with prudence, and with strength. And the better to commend them to your observance, I have begun by drawing your attention to them as they are exhibited in the charity of Christ.

O Christians, learn from Christ how you ought to love Christ. Learn to love Him with a love that is tender, and prudent, and strong. Unless your love of the Lord is tender, you may renounce it under the seductive influence of counter-attractions; unless prudent, you may be misled, and lose it through fraud; unless strong, it will yield to violence. If you wish to avoid being seduced and alienated from Christ, by the glory of this world and the delights of the flesh, you must find in Him Who is the Wisdom ot the Father, a relish more alluringly sweet than either of these. If you would not be led astray by the spirit of deceit and error, Christ, Who is truth, must enlighten your minds. And lest you sink and faint under adversity, the same Christ, Who is the Power of God, must strengthen and support you. Let your zeal borrow fervour from charity, light from knowledge, strength from constancy. Let it be ardent, let it be prudent, let it be unconquerable. Let it be equally free from sloth, from temerity, and from timidity. And consider now, if these qualities of love, namely, tenderness, prudence and constancy, be not prescribed in the Law, where God gives the command, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength." It appears to me (although perhaps some of you can discover a more reasonable explanation of this threefold distinction) that love of the heart refers to ardour or tenderness in our affection, and love of the soul to the activity or judgment of our reason; whilst love of our strength may possibly relate to constancy or vigour of mind. Therefore, love the Lord with the full and entire affection of your hearts, that is to say, tenderly; love Him with all the vigilance and circumspection of your understanding, and so prudently; love Him with your whole strength, so that you may be ready even to give your lives for His love. Thus we read in a subsequent verse of this Canticle, "for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell." My brethren, let the Lord Jesus be sweet and agreeable to your affections, in order that He may serve you as a counter charm against the dangerously attractive delights of the flesh. Let sweetness be overcome by sweetness, as one nail drives out another. But Jesus must also be the guiding Light of your intellects and the Director of your minds, not only that you may avoid the contemptible frauds³ of heretical deception, and preserve the purity of your faith from its cunning impostures, but also to enable you to walk with caution, guarding yourselves against indiscreet and excessive zeal in your conversation. And your love of Him ought, moreover, to possess strength and constancy, neither yielding to fears nor fainting under labours. Let us, therefore, love Jesus tenderly, wisely, and strongly, as knowing that the love of the heart, which I describe as tender, is sweet indeed, but liable to seduction if unaccompanied by what I call the love of the soul; just as this, without the love of strength, is prudent certainly, but lacking in vigour.

I will prove to you by evident examples the truth of what I have been saying. When the disciples were grieving at the thought of losing their Master, Who had been speaking to them of His Ascension, He said, "If you love Me you would rejoice because I go to the Father." What! Is it meant that they had no love for Him Whose departure they so bemoaned? No, my brethren, but they loved Him in one way, and in another they did not love Him. I mean, they loved Him tenderly, but not prudently. They loved Him according to the flesh, not according to reason. They loved Him with their whole hearts, yet not with their whole souls. Such love was an obstacle to their perfection. Hence He told them, "It is expedient for you that I go," whereby He censured, not the tenderness, but the imprudence of their affection. On another occasion, when He was speaking of His approaching death, and Peter, out of love, attempted to hold Him back and was making opposition to His purpose, in the reproof, wherewith, as you remember, He checked the Apostle, what else did He condemn but his imprudence? For what means the expression, "Thou savourest not the things that are of God," except this, "thou lovest not wisely, following human affection to the disregard of the divine counsel"? And He called Peter Satan, because like an adversary,* albeit unwittingly, he was placing obstacles in the way of his own and our salvation, by trying to hinder the Saviour's death. Hence, after this correction, when Christ was again making allusion to the same sad subject of His Passion, the disciple no longer raised any objection, but rather promised to die with Him. But the promise was not fulfilled, because he had not yet attained to that third degree of charity in which we love with our whole strength. He had been taught to love with his whole soul, but his love was still weak. He had received light enough to know his duty but not, as yet, enough spiritual strength to act up to his knowledge. He was not so much in ignorance of the mystery of Redemption as in terror of the pains of martyrdom. Manifestly, that love was not "strong as death," which yielded to the fear of death. But it became so afterwards, when Peter, fortified with virtue from above, according to the promise of Jesus Christ, began to love with so much strength, that, when forbidden by the Jewish Council to preach the holy name, he boldly replied, "we ought to obey God rather than men." Then in truth he loved with all his strength, when he was willing to sacrifice even his life for his love, since "greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." For although he did not then actually lay down his life, he at least exposed it to imminent danger. Therefore, to love with one's whole heart, with one's whole soul, and with all one's strength, is to love with a love that can neither be seduced by pleasure, nor deceived by error, nor overpowered by the violence of any persecution.

And take notice that the love of the heart is, in some sense, carnal, because it tends to turn the hearts of men towards the Flesh of Christ, and towards His example and precepts, given in the flesh. One that is filled with this love is easily affected by every discourse on such subjects. There is nothing he more willingly hears, more attentively reads, more frequently calls to mind, more affectionately ponders. With this love, as with the fat of the "fatted calf," he enriches his holocausts of prayer. He has before his mind, as he prays, the sacred image of the God- Man, in the manger, or on His mother's breast, or teaching, or dying, or, rising from the tomb, or ascending into heaven. Every such representation must necessarily urge his soul to the love of virtue, or help to repress the carnal passions, put temptations to flight, and extinguish evil desires. To my thinking, this appears to have been one of the main reasons why the invisible God willed to appear in visible flesh, and as Man to converse amongst men, that, namely, He might draw all the affections of carnal men, who knew how to love only in a carnal manner, first to a salutary love of His own Flesh, and thence lead them gradually to a more spiritual love of His Divinity.⁴ Was not the former the degree of charity in which they still stood, who said, "Behold we have left all things and followed Thee"? Surely we must admit that it was the love of Christ's sensible presence alone that had led them to leave all things, since they could not listen patiently to a single word about His saving Passion and death before the events, nor afterwards witness even the glory of His Ascension without oppressive sorrow. This is what He Himself meant when He said, "Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart." Thu?, it was as yet only by the power and the grace of His own presence in the flesh that He had withdrawn them from all other love according to the flesh.

Afterwards, however, He pointed out to them a more excellent degree of charity in the words: "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." That degree, as I think, had already been reached by St. Paul, when he wrote, "And if we have known Christ according to the flesh; but now we know Him so no longer." Perhaps the Prophet Jeremias also stood in the same degree, who said, "A Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord." For the words added, "under Thy shadow we shall live amongst the Gentiles," he seems to me to have spoken in the person of beginners, signifying that they who did not yet feel strong enough to bear the heat of the sun, should at least find rest in the shadow. In other words, that they should nourish themselves with the sweetness of the Flesh who are not able as yet to perceive "the things that are of the Spirit of God." The shadow of Christ, I take it, is that Flesh of His which overshadowed even His mother, and by its opacity, as by a veil interposed, tempered for her the burning heat and dazzling splendour of the Spirit. Therefore, in this love of the Flesh let him find, meantime, his consolation who has not yet received the vivifying Spirit, at least in that way in which He was possessed by those who said, "A Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord," and "if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we know Him so no longer." For it is quite certain that only in the Holy Ghost can Christ be loved at all, even according to the flesh, and even with a love less full than the love of the whole heart. Nevertheless, the whole capacity of our hearts ought to be the only measure of this carnal love, whose sweetness should fill them' to overflowing, and so wean them away from the love of all other flesh and of the delights of the flesh. For it is thus only that we love with our whole hearts. Otherwise, by preferring any connexions or gratifications of my own flesh to the Flesh of my Lord, and thus failing in the perfect observance of those things which He, whilst still in the flesh, taught me by word and example, I make it clearly manifest that I do not love Him with my whole heart. For my heart being divided, I appear to be giving one part of it to the love of His Flesh, and appropriating the other to the love of my own. Yet He has said, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." In short, therefore, to love Him with our whole hearts is to prefer to all carnal satisfactions, whatever and whencesoever they may be, the love of His most holy Flesh. And with carnal gratifications I include also worldly glory, both because the glory of the world is the glory of the flesh, and because those who take delight in such glory are, without any doubt, carnally minded.

This devotion to Christ's sacred Flesh is, consequently, a gift, and a great gift, of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, I have called it carnal in comparison with that love which has for object not so much the Flesh of the Word as the Word under the aspect of Wisdom, of Justice, of Truth, of Sanctity, of Piety, of Power, and of the various other Divine Attributes. For Christ rather is than has all these Perfections, "Who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Justice, and Sanctification, and Redemption." Now, do you think, my brethren, that these two persons are equally and similarly affected towards Him — he who lovingly compassionates the sufferings of Christ, who is easily moved to compunction and other such emotions at the thought of all He endured for us, who feeds his soul with the sweetness of this devotion, and thence derives energy for every salutary, good, and pious exercise; and he who is always inflamed with the zeal for justice, who is everywhere jealous of the interests of truth, who is eager in the pursuit of wisdom, loves sanctity of life and probity of morals, who proclaims by his conduct his dislike of boasting, his horror of detraction, his ignorance of envy, his detestation of pride, his, not only aversion, but even scorn and contempt for vainglory, his utter hatred and intolerance of all manner of uncleanness in himself, and, in a word, his almost natural and instinctive abhorrence of all that is evil and delight in aJl that is good? Comparing together these kinds of love, does it not appear evident to you that, in relation to the latter, the former is at least in some sense carnal?

A good thing, however, is this carnal love of Christ, enabling us, as it does, to live, not a carnal, but a spiritual life, and to conquer and contemn the world. As it progresses it wiD become rational, and will have reached its perfection when it changes to spiritual. Love is then rational when, as regards all points of Christian doctrine, it clings with such tenacity to the orthodox faith, that by no counterfeits of truth, by no heretical or rather diabolical circumvention can it be seduced in the least from the purity of Catholic teaching; and when, in private life, it is so observant ol caution as never to transgress the limits of moderation by any extravagance, levity, or the impetuosity of an excessively ardent spirit. This is, as I have already said, loving God with one's whole sou]. Should there be added to our love such vigour from the supporting Spirit that no difficulties, no torments, no terrors of death shall avail to turn us aside from the paths of justice, then we shall love With all our "strength," and our love will be spiritual. For the epithet spiritual belongs especially to this love, on account of the fulness of the Spirit which is its prerogative and its distinguishing excellence.

So much must suffice on the words of the Spouse, "Therefore, young maidens have loved Thee exceedingly." With regard to what follows, may the treasures of divine mercy be graciously opened to us, by Him Who is their Custodian, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God for endless ages. Amen.

Footnotes

1. That is to say, the only thing of value in man is his knowledge of God. There is question, of course, of supernatural knowledge, of the faith that worketh by charity. In the same sense it is said in Ecclesiastes, "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is all man." — (Translator.) ↩

2. In other words, we owe our Creation as well as our Redemption and Justification to God's antecedent and gratuitous love for us. — (Translator.) ↩

3. The Henrician and other heresies of St. Bernard's time were but a recrudescence of Manicheism. — (Translator.) ↩

4. Similar to this is what we find in St. Gregory the Great, homilia n in Evangelia: "The kingdom of heaven is likened to earthly objects in order that the soul may be led by means of familiar and sensible things to the knowledge and the love of things spiritual and invisible." — (Translator.) ↩