On Loving God by Bernard of Clairvaux
Many Christians speak of loving God. One of the most important theologians who discussed the love of God was Bernard of Clairvaux. In his book On Loving God, Bernard of Clairvaux described what love is and the four degrees of love.
Bernard of Clairvaux lived from 1090 to August 20, 1153 A.D. He was the main builder and former of the Cistercian order. On June 25, 1115, he founded a monastery named Claire Vallee, which morphed into Clairvaux. In the monastery, Bernard of Clairvaux taught that Mary was an intercessor for sinners. Bernard of Clairvaux also aided in the formation of the Rule of the Knights Templar (to whom he is also a patron saint) during the Council of Troyes in 1128. During his life, several important people lived, including Pope Honorius II, Louis VI of France, Henry I of England, and Lothair III of Germany. One of the church councils Bernard of Clairvaux took part in during a schism in the Church was the Second Lateran Council. Long after his death, in 1830, Pope Pius VIII officially named Bernard the Doctor of the Church for his aid, teachings, and encouragment during the various 12th century church upheavals.
Possibly the most important work written by Bernard of Clairvaux was entitled On Loving God. It was written to instruct Lord Haimeric, a cardinal and chancellor in the Roman Church. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “I answer, the reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of love due to Him is immeasurable love...We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.” According to Bernard of Clairvaux, men should love God because He loved us. Bernard of Clairvaux also draws a distinction between angels and men. God “succored men in their time of need, preserved angels from such need; and even as His love for sinful men wrought wondrously in them so that they should not remain sinful, so that same love which in equal measure he poured out upon angels kept them altogether free from sin.” Thus, both men and angels were saved from sin, but angels were not sinful to begin with, while men were.
Further in the book, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “Man must seek in his own higher nature for the highest gifts; and these are dignity, wisdom, and virtue.” Dignity is free-will by which man exerts his power over animals. Wisdom occurs when a man knows of dignity and that dignity did not come from his own will. Virtue “impels man to seek eagerly for Him who is man’s source, and to lay fast hold on Him when he has been found.” The trouble with this definition is that it can be taken to mean that man is the one who finds God instead of God finding man. A man should know “what we are, and that it is not of ourselves that we are what we are.” By knowing this, man knows how much God deserves love.
“The faithful know how much need they have of Jesus and Him crucified; but though they wonder and rejoice at the ineffable love made manifest in Him, they are not daunted at having no more than their own poor souls to give in return for such great and condescending charity,” Bernard of Clairvaux wrote. He described that none aside from Christians feels love truly and properly. Because of the Passion and the Resurection, man was able to recognize the love of God. However, only “the believing soul longs and faints for God...”; by this means, Bernard of Clairvaux again tells that only Christians can truly have love for God.
Bernard of Clairvaux also says that God should be loved. He says that “the infidel does not acknowledge the Son of God, and so he can know neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; for he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which sent Him, not the Spirit whom He hath sent.” Bernard of Clairvaux also tells that God provides for all things, and thus should be loved.
There are four degrees of love. The first degree is to show love to God before anybody else. Bernard of Clairvaux explained it, saying “But if we are to love our neighbors as we ought, we must have regard to God also: for it is only in God that we can pay that debt of love aright.” As for the second degree of love, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “So then in the beginning man loves God, not for God’s sake, but for his own.” That is because men are quite helpless without God’s help; God would not help men unless He loved them, so thus, to become less helpless, a man needs God’s love. When dealing with the third level, Bernard of Clairvaux said, “Once this is recognized it will not be hard to fullfil the commandment touching love to our neighbors; for whosever loves God aright loves all God’s creatures.” Of all the types of love, Bernard of Clairvaux said, that type of love is the pure kind. The fourth degree of love is the best, purest, and truest level, during which a man is “blessed and holy to whom such rapture has been vouchsafed in this mortal life...” Bernard of Clairvaux does make note of the fact that occasionally “the malice of daily trifles disturbs [a man], this body of death weighs him down, the needs of the flesh are imperative, the weakness of corruption fails him, and above all brotherly love calls him back to duty.” However, even through all those troubles, men can still love God because God loved them first.
Bernard of Clairvaux was a 12th century theologian who wrote On Loving God. The purpose of this book was to instruct a cardinal about love of God. The love of God, Bernard of Clairvaux said, comes in four degrees and is not possible unless God had loved man first.
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