20 August 2018
Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
Part of seeking union with the Lord requires us to admit honestly when we have turned away from Him. The Israelites whom Ezekiel addresses are perfectly content to go about their day with no notice when the sanctuary of the Lord’s Temple is about to be profaned due to their neglect. Despite the tragedy of holiest place in their city and nation, indeed, in the world, being desecrated, they still will dress as on any other day, eat as on any other day, and shed no tear for the loss of holiness in their midst. The insanity of this neglect of the holy is only brought to their attention by Ezekiel’s stark lack of any sign of mourning for the death of his wife. What madness it would be not to weep for the loss of one’s beloved, to have lost the bodily presence of one’s spouse and simply to go about business as usual!
It was a similarly unintelligible spiritual neglect on the part of some who lived in his monastery at the close of the 11thcentury that confronted the abbot St. Robert of Molesme. Initially, his monks were very zealous in their religious life, but after their holiness attracted generous benefactors and the monastery grew in wealth, the monks became lax. St. Robert tried to recall them back to their first fervor, but many of the monks now preferred having nice things rather than their initial zealous poverty. Thus, St. Robert got permission to found a new monastery in Citeaux, France. It was to this monastery that St. Bernard first came, and became the most renowned member of the Order of Cistercians. St. Bernard spent his life advocating for a return to religious life rooted in living simply as Jesus had lived and so finding union with Him. Even when other religious disagreed with him, or mocked him, St. Bernard always replied in speech and writing with a charity that only comes from always wanting to love one’s opponents as Christ loves them. It was this unity with Christ in deed and word that allowed St. Bernard to convince lax religious to mourn their loss of the path of their vocation of evangelical poverty, to persuade warring Christian princes to mourn their loss of unity with Christ the Prince of Peace, and who himself mourned so much the abuses of marauding crusaders who had forsaken their mission of protecting Christians living in the Eastern Empire and the Holy Land.
As we come to the Lord, we may hear Him challenge our attachments as He challenged those of the rich young man. Let us not turn away from Jesus, sadly clinging to what holds our heart. Let us not be content with the loss of loving union in body, mind and heart with God. Instead, let us ask for the grace to live as St. Bernard, embracing the sacrifices of our vocation, and thus joyful in our union with the only one who fulfills us, Christ our Lord.