Sermon XXXV. On the Two Kinds of Ignorance which We Ought to Fear and to Avoid

"If thou know not thyself, O fairest of women, go forth and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds."

"If thou know not thyself, go forth." The Bridegroom, my brethren, is here administering a sharp and severe reprimand, inasmuch as He uses the expression "go forth." Such a command servants are wont to hear from their masters when under the influence of excessive anger and indignation, and handmaidens from their mistresses whose deep displeasure they have incurred. "Get thee hence," cries the wrathful lord or lady, "depart from my presence, get out of my sight, leave my house." This, then, is the language, harsh and bitter enough, and conveying a stern reproof, in which the Bridegroom addresses His beloved. But He speaks conditionally, "if thou know not thyself." And certainly He could not employ a more powerful or more efficacious means- for inspiring her with terror than to threaten her thus with being sent forth. You will agree with me in this, my brethren, if you consider well whence she is bidden to go and whither. For what else is that change whereof she is here warned but the decline from the spirit to the flesh, from the goods of the soul to earthly desires, from interior peace and joy of heart to worldly tumult and the distractions of temporal cares? That is to say, the Spouse is bidden to go forth to things in which she shall find only labour and pain and affliction of spirit. For the soul that has once learned from the Lord and obtained the grace to enter into herself, and in her own interior to yearn for the presence of God and to "seek His Face at all times" — since "God is a Spirit," and they that seek Him ought to "walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, so as to live according to the flesh" — such a soul, I say, would scarcely consider the endurance, for a time, of the pains of hell a more terrible and unbearable chastisement, than, after tasting the sweetness of this interior and spiritual life, to have to return to the pleasures, or rather to the troubles of the flesh, and to become again the slave of the insatiable appetite of the senses, of which Ecclesiastes says, "The eye is not filled with seeing nor the ear with hearing." Attend to one who, learned by experience the truth of what I am saying. "The Lord," exclaimed the Prophet Jeremias, "is good to them that hope in Him, to the soul that seeketh Him." Should anyone endeavour to deprive the holy soul of this good which she enjoys in union with her God, I believe she would suffer quite as much as if she saw herself expelled from paradise and driven away from the very gates of glory. Listen to another Prophet speaking in the same sense. "My heart," sings the Psalmist, "hath said to Thee: my face hath sought Thee; Thy Face, O Lord, will I still seek." Hence he also says, "It is good for me to adhere to my God." And again, addressing his soul, "Turn, 0 my soul, unto thy rest, for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee." Hence, I say to you, there is nothing so dreaded by the soul that has once been raised to union with the heavenly Bridegroom as to be abandoned by grace and thus, in a manner, obliged to go forth again to the consolations, rather the desolations, of the flesh, and again to endure the distraction and turbulence of the bodily senses.

Therefore, my brethren, truly awful and terrifying is the threat conveyed in the words, "Go forth and feed thy kids." As much as to say, "Know thyself to be undeserving of that sweet and familiar contemplation of things celestial, spiritual, and divine, which I have hitherto permitted thee. Wherefore, go forth from My sanctuary, which is thine own heart, where thou hast been accustomed to receive with rapture the hidden and holy impressions of wisdom and truth. And for the future, apply thyself to the task of satisfying and pleasing the senses of the flesh." For by "kids" — which are symbolic of sin and on the Last Day are to stand on the Judge's left — the Bridegroom means the wandering and wayward sensitive faculties, by which, as through windows, sin and death found entrance to I the soul. With this interpretation the words which follow in our text — "beside the tents of the shepherds" — can be perfectly harmonised. For kids have their! pasture not, like lambs, above, but beside the tents of the shepherds. That is to say, shepherds, who are truly such, although living in tabernacles on the earth I and of the earth, viz., their mortal bodies, wherein they carry on their spiritual warfare, are nevertheless wont to feed the flocks of Christ, not on earthly but on heavenly pastures, since they direct them not according to their own, but according to their Master's Will. But the kids, that is, the material senses, do not need such spiritual nourishment. "Beside the tents of the shepherds," viz., amidst all the sensible goods of this world — in the world of bodies — they find wherewith — I will not say to appease but to provoke their desires.

What an ignominious change of occupation, my brethren! She whose only care heretofore was to nourish her soul, whilst a sojourner and an exile here on earth, with the heavenly food of holy meditations, to study the good pleasure of God and the mysterious dispositions of His sovereign Will, to penetrate the heavens by the fervour of her love, and to visit in fancy the abodes of the blessed, to salute the patriarchs and the prophets and the apostolic company, to admire the bands of triumphant martyrs, and to stand amazed before the magnificent choirs of the angels — she who was accustomed to be thus employed has now to renounce all this happiness and to engage herself to the dishonourable service of the earthly body. Henceforth it shall be her business to obey the flesh, to gratify the stomach and the palate, to beg through the world — through this world, the "fashion" whereof "passeth away" — the means of appeasing to some extent an ever ravenous appetite for pleasure. Send forth, O my eyes, send forth torrents of tears over the fate of such a soul, which, having been brought up in scarlet, now riots in filth! In the words of holy Job, "She hath fed the barren that beareth not, and to the widow she hath done no good." And observe that it is not simply said to her "go forth"; but "go forth and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds." By these words the Bridegroom, as it seems to me, intends to warn us about a matter of gravest import. Do you wish to know what it is? Alas! my brethren. It is that a creature¹ noble by origin, but long since degraded to the level of the brute, and now going miserably from bad to worse, is not allowed even to keep her place amongst the flock, but is bidden to follow after. Now some one may ask, how can that be? It is only what we read in the psalms, "And man when he was in honour did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts and is become like to them." Behold how the noble creature is reduced to the level of the common brutes. And I suppose if these irrational animals were endowed with the faculty of speech, they would say, "Behold Adam is become as one of us." "Man, when he was in honour." Would you like to be told in what honour? He dwelt in paradise. His days were passed in a place of pleasure. Neither suffering nor want had any access to him. Surrounded with odoriferous apple trees, reclining on banks of flowers, crowned with honour and glory, and set over all the works of his Creator, he enjoyed the bliss and the companionship of the holy angels and of all the powers of the host of heaven. Yet his grandest prerogative was the glory of the divine image impressed upon his soul.

But this glory of God he "changed into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass." Therefore it was that the Bread of angels became Grass, and was laid in the manger, and placed before us, who were now nothing better than brute animals. For "the Word was made Flesh," and according to the Prophet, "All flesh is grass." Yet this Grass has by no means become withered, neither has Its flower fallen off, since the Spirit of the Lord rested upon It, as Isaias predicted. And the reason why all flesh was once destroyed was because the Spirit of life had withdrawn from it. For it is written, "My Spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh." You must understand that it is the vices of human nature which are here called flesh, not human nature itself; because the Spirit is expelled, not by what is natural in us, but by what is vicious and sinful. It is, therefore, on account of its corruption by sin that the Prophet says, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. The grass is withered and the flower is fallen." But this does not apply to that Flower Which came forth from and rose up out of the root and the rod of Jesse, because on It rested the Spirit of the Lord. Nor does it apply to that Grass or Flesh Which the Word was made, since the Prophet goes on to say, "But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever." For if the Word is Grass, and the Word endureth for ever, the Grass also must endure for ever. How otherwise, unless It endures for ever, can It communicate eternal life? And yet we read of It, "If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever." What Bread is meant we have clearly explained for us in the words that follow, "And the Bread That I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world." How, then, can That which is the Principle of eternal life to others, be Itself otherwise than eternal?

But recall now with me, my brethren, the words addressed to the Father by His Son, where He speaks in the psalm. "Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One," He says, "to see corruption." Doubtless, He is here speaking of His Body, Which lay lifeless in the tomb. For This was also called holy by the Angel Gabriel, who announced the Incarnation to Mary in the words, "The Holy That shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Surely, then, that holy Grass, Which sprung up in the pastures, verdant with a perennial freshness, of the Virgin's spotless womb, Which the angels contemplate with eager love and ever-new delight — surely, that Divine Grass can never see corruption. If, indeed, Mary, in becoming a mother, had lost her virginal bloom, in that case the Grass also would lose Its greenness. Hence the Food of man converted Itself into the Food of beasts, when man became as a beast. Oh, what a sad and mournful change! That man, the dweller in paradise, the lord of the earth, the citizen of heaven, the domestic of the Lord of Sabaoth, the brother of the blessed spirits, and the co-heir with the celestial powers — that such a one should find himself by a sudden transformation, lying down in a stable from weakness, needing grass, like the beast whose image he had assumed, and because of his ungovernable ferocity bound to the manger, as it is written, "With bit and bridle bind fast their jaws, who come not nigh to Thee!" Yet, even now, O ox, recognise thy Owner, and thou, O ass, thy Master's crib, that the prophets of the Lord may be found faithful, who foretold these wonders of God! Know even in 'thy present bestial condition Him Whom as a man thou didst not know. Adore in the stable the God Whom in paradise thou didst flee from. Honour the manger of Him Whose divine authority thou hast despised. Eat Him now as Grass, Whom as Bread and the Bread of angels thou didst disdain.

But, you will ask, my brethren, what could be the cause of such degeneration? It is unquestionably the fact that "man, when he was in honour, did not understand." What is it that he did not understand? The Prophet does not explain; but let me attempt to do so. Being placed in honour, and elated in spirit at the greatness of his glory, he failed to understand that he was but the slime of the earth. And immediately he experienced in himself what, long ages afterwards, one of the heirs of his captivity prudently observed and faithfully proclaimed, when he said, "If any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." Alas for our miserable first parent, that there was none to say to him, "O earth and ashes, why art thou proud?" Hence it was that the noble rational creature became associated with the dumb beasts; hence the divine image was exchanged for the brutish; hence the society of holy angels gave place to that of irrational animals. Do you perceive now, my brethren, how much to be avoided is this kind of ignorance, which has been the source of such innumerable evils to the whole human race? For the Prophet declares that the reason why man is compared to the mindless brute is that he "did not understand." Consequently, we must guard against this ignorance by every means in our power, lest, haply, if still found without understanding, even after our chastisement, we should have to endure evils much more numerous and terrible than the former; and lest it be said of us, "We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed." And very justly so, since not even correction brought "understanding to our hearing."

And consider, my brethren, if this be not the reason why the Bridegroom, when warning His beloved in so terrifying a manner against ignorance, did not say to her "go forth with the flocks," or "go forth to the flocks," but "go forth and follow after the steps of the flocks." For why should He speak thus, unless to point out that we ought to be more afraid and ashamed of the second ignorance, i.e., the ignorance after correction, than of the first, since, if the first placed man on a level with the brutes, the second places him after, that is, beneath them. Beneath the - brutes I say, because men, ignored and reprobated by God on account of their ignorance of Him, shall stand before His dreadful tribunal and be consigned to everlasting flames, but not so the brutes. No doubt, the condition of those human beings who shall receive such a judgment will be worse than the state of absolute nothingness. "It were better for him," said Christ, speaking of one destined for this doom, "if that man had not been born." He did not mean to say "if he had not been born at all," but "if he had not been born a man,"² but a beast, for instance, or some other kind of irrational creature, which, as not possessing the faculty of judgment, would never have been called to judgment, nor, consequently, have been liable to eternal punishment. Therefore, let the reasoning animal, who blushes for his former ignorance, know that although he has the brute beasts as his partners in the enjoyment of the good things of this earth, he shall not likewise have their company in the endurance of the torments of hell — the penalty of the second ignorance; that in the end he shall be expelled with ignominy from the society of the flocks and herds of his fellow-beasts; and that he shall no longer be allowed to go forth even with them, but only after them. For whereas death extinguishes in them all capacity for pain, he shall find himself a prey to every kind of evil, from which he is never to obtain deliverance. And all this because of his having added the second ignorance to the first. Therefore, man goes forth, and goes forth solitary, to "follow after the steps of the flock," when he is precipitated into the hell of the damned. Does not he, think you, occupy a place lower than the brutes, who, with his hands and feet bound, is "cast into the exterior darkness"? And truly "the last state of that man is made worse than the first," since from an equality with the beasts he is reduced to inferiority.

Even in the present life, if you consider the matter carefully, you will perceive, as I think, that man follows after the brute. For does it not seem to you that one who, whilst gifted with reason, does not live according to reason, is in some sense more beastly than the beasts themselves? The beasts indeed do not govern themselves by reason. But they have an excuse in the poverty of their nature, to which that faculty has been altogether denied. For man there is no such excuse, of whose nature the power of intelligence is a special prerogative. Justly, then, is man considered to go forth and to take rank after the flocks and herds, inasmuch as he is the only animal that by a degenerate life transgresses the laws of his nature, and, though gifted with reason, in his habits and affections imitates the unreasoning brutes. Thus I have shown you that he follows "after the footsteps of the flocks," in this life by the corruption of his nature, and shall do so in the life to come by the extremity of his chastisement.

Behold, my brethren, thus shall the man be cursed who shall be found without knowledge of God. But is it "without knowledge of God "I should say, or rather "without knowledge of himself "? Undoubtedly, I should say both. Both kinds of ignorance are criminal, and either, by itself, suffices for damnation. Do you wish to be assured of the truth of what I say? Well, in the first place, you certainly cannot doubt that ignorance of God leads to eternal death, since, as you know, eternal life is nothing else than the knowledge of the "Father, the only true God," and of "Jesus Christ

Whom He hath sent." Listen, therefore, to the words of the Bridegroom, wherein He clearly and unmistakably condemns the Spouse's ignorance even of herself. For what does Ke say? Not "if thou know not God," but "if thou know not thyself, go forth and follow after the flocks." Thus it is evident that, as the Apostle declares, "If any man know not, he shall not be known," whether his ignorance be of God or of himself. These two species of ignorance shall furnish us with matter for a very useful discussion, if yet the Lord withholds not His assistance. However, I do not intend to open that subject now, lest through weariness and the omission of the customary prayers for light, either I should treat a most important question with insufficient diligence, or you should listen languidly to what ought to be received with eager appetite. For, as the food of the body, when eaten without relish or hunger, rather injures than benefits, so, and much more so, with the food of the soul. If taken with disrelish or disgust, instead of enlightening the mind, it will torment the conscience. From which may the Divine Spouse of the Church protect us, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Footnotes

1. "Egregia creatura facta de grege." The holy Preacher is here referring to the etymology of the word "egregia" which is a compound from e grege, and means "outside" or "distinguished from the common herd." — (Translator.) ↩

2. "Melius ei fuerat si natus non fuisset homo ille." St. Bernard appears to regard the word "homo" in this text as a predicate, so that the meaning would be, "It were better for him if he had never been born a man." — (Translator.) ↩