Love of Bridegroom & Bride – Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard here treats of one of his favorite themes, the love relationship between God as bridegroom and the individual soul as bride, according the Song of Songs (otherwise known as the Canticle of Canticles or Song of Solomon).  This selection is so typical of this great preacher and mystic that it read annually on August 20, Bernard’s feast day.

Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it.

God’s Desire

Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him.

Love of the Bridegroom

The Bridegroom’s love, or rather the love which is the Bridegroom, asks in return nothing but faithful love. Let the beloved, then, love in return. Should not a bride love, and above all, Love’s bride? Could it be that Love not be loved?

Rightly then does she give up all other feelings and give herself wholly to love alone; in giving love back, all she can do is to respond to love. And when she has poured out her whole being in love, what is that in comparison with the unceasing torrent of that original source? Clearly, lover and Love, soul and Word, bride and Bridegroom, creature and Creator do not flow with the same volume; one might as well equate a thirsty man with the fountain.

Hope of the Bride

What then of the bride’s hope, her aching desire, her passionate love, her confident assurance? Is all this to wilt just because she cannot match stride for stride with her giant, any more than she can vie with honey for sweetness, rival the lamb for gentleness, show herself as white as the lily, burn as bright as the sun, be equal in love with him who is Love?

No. It is true that the creature loves less because she is less. But if she loves with her whole being, nothing is lacking where everything is given. To love so ardently then is to share the marriage bond; she cannot love so much and not be totally loved, and it is in the perfect union of two hearts that complete and total marriage consists. Or are we to doubt that the soul is loved by the Word first and with a greater love?

This excerpt from a sermon of St. Bernard (Sermo 83, 4-6; Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc 2 [1958], 300-302) is used in the Roman Office of Readings for the memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on Aug 20.  This theme is greatly developed by Bernard in his commentary and homilies on the Song of Songs.

For more on mystical union of the soul, as bride, with God as bridegroom, visit the CONTEMPLATION AND PRAYER Section of the Crossroads Initiative Library.

Banner/featured image by an unknown artist. Public domain.