Bernard of Clairvaux: Embracing the Lord in Adoration
Bernard of Clairvaux was a twelfth century Christian leader of the Cistercian movement. The analogy and symbolism of embracing the Lord in three ways: his face in adoration, his feet in repentance, and his hand in obedience, comes from Bernard’s teaching that sought to inspire greater love for God. He saw the great love story between God and his people running prominently throughout Scripture. Bernard wrote:
When I reflect, as a I often do, on the ardor with which the patriarchs longed for the incarnation of Christ, I am pierced with sorrow and shame. And now I can scarcely contain my tears, so ashamed am I of the lukewarmness and lethargy of the present times . . . How I pray that the burning desire and longing in the hearts of these holy men of old may be aroused in me. . . . You would not be seeking him or loving him unless you had first been sought and loved. . . . These sweet gifts of love make you bold and drive diffidence away, and they persuade you to return and move you to loving response. Hence comes the zeal, the ardor to seek him whom your soul loves, for you cannot seek unless you are sought and now that you are sought you cannot fail to seek. . . . I love, and I cannot doubt that I am loved. Nor can I fear his face whose love I experience.”[1]
This brief quote relates to embracing the face of the Lord in loving adoration. It is significant to note that when he wrote this during the twelfth century, he was terribly disappointed with the apathy and coldness of Christian believers toward the Lord. This seems to be a constant refrain in every century from those seeking to stir people to more deeply “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
In the quote above Bernard urges believers in Christ to live out of response to the love of God, knowing that the initiative of love always begins with him. This reinforces the reality of believers’ absolute reliance upon the grace and love of God. Though believers sometimes experience an apparent paradox between total reliance upon God’s grace while pursuing and embracing the Lord, at their core they are “living out of response” to his great love.
[1] Evans, Bernard of Clairvaux, 276.
[...] Fully Embracing Christ – 16 – Bernard of Clairvaux Thu Jul 22, 2010 20:00 pm Bernard of Clairvaux: Embracing the Lord in Adoration Bernard of Clairvaux was a twelfth century Christian leader of the Cistercian movement. The analogy and symbolism of embracing the Lord in three ways: his face in adoration, his feet in repentance, and his hand in obedience, comes from Bernard’s teaching that sought to inspire greater love [...] [...]
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