His feast day falls on August 20th. French by nationality but passionately Catholic at heart, out of full devotion towards the Church he was constrained to leave his monastery at Clairveaux to dedicate himself to the many serious concerns of both the Holy See and the Church. Patrologists often refer to him as “the last of the Fathers” since in the 12th century he highlighted the importance of the theological contribution of the Fathers of the Church. The name of this extraordinary man is Bernard of Clairveaux. Born in 1090 in Fontaines, France, from a large and rather prosperous family, the young Bernard received his education at the school of the canons of the Church of Saint-Vorles at Châtillon-sur-Seine wherein he totally engaged himself in the study of liberal arts especially grammar, rhetoric and dialectics. At the age of 20 he started his monastic journey by going to Cîteaux, which, at the time, was a new flexible monastic community with a stricter accent on the living of the evangelical counsels. After few years, Stephen Harding, the third Abbot of Cîteaux, sent Bernard to found the famous Monastery of Clairvaux. Here, the 25-year-old Abbot immediately showed his reforming genius by strongly putting into practice the pressing need of living a moderate and disciplined life both at table and the way monasteries were built. His drastic reforms were also aimed at opening the monastic community to generously respond to the needs of the poor.
Deeply entrenched in the study and meditation of the Sacred Scriptures coupled with the writings of the Fathers of the Church, Bernard was strong enough to defend staunchly and bravely the Catholic faith. He
combatted the Cathars’ heresy which showed complete disgust for whatever is material, especially the human body, and, as a result, rejected the Creator as its author. Moreover, Bernard attempted to prevent the widespread violence towards the Jews which occurred during the First Crusade. In his letter which promoted the Second Crusade, Saint Bernard wrote: “The Jews must not be persecuted, slaughtered, nor even driven out. Inquire of the pages of Holy Writ. I know what is written in the Psalms as prophecy about the Jews. ‘God hath commanded me,’ says the Church, ‘Slay them not, lest my people forget.’”
Bernard’s zealous love for God moved him to conclude that God is to be found not in the sheer exercise of intellectual speculation but, more specifically, when the heart is open and disposed to his revelations that are freely given in the one-to-one encounter with him in prayer.
He said: “The search for this God who is not yet sufficiently sought must be continued. Yet it may be easier to search for him and find him in prayer rather than in discussion. So let us end the book here, but not the search”.
The art of prayer taught Bernard that Jesus alone is “honey in the mouth, song to the ear, jubilation in the heart” (‘mel in ore, in aure melos, in corde iubilum’). Tradition has every reason to confer on him the title ‘Doctor Mellifluus’ because his teaching on Jesus Christ is an entire canticle of praise and worship. It “flowed like honey” from his mouth. He perfectly knew that when a theological debate is not Christ-centred it loses its bearing and becomes weak and confusing. The holy Abbot used to say that “all food of the soul is dry unless it is moistened with this oil; insipid, unless it is seasoned with this salt. What you write has no savour for me unless I have read ‘Jesus’ in it”.
Do I regard Jesus’ friendship, love and intimate closeness as my very life?
■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap