Easter Weekday

THE LIGHT OF THE LORD’S MERCIES
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux 5
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All of you know what is good, the way on which to proceed, and how you
ought to proceed along it. But you do not have a single will. For in all the
exercises of this way and this life, some not only walk but also run, or rather fly;
so that to them their vigils seem brief, their foods sweet, their clothing soft, and
their labors not only bearable but even appealing. Others, however, are not like
this. Instead with withered hearts and rebellious dispositions, scarcely are they
dragged to these exercises, scarcely are they compelled by fear of hell. Wretched
and woebegone, they share in our tribulation but not in our consolation. Is the
hand of the Lord shortened so that he cannot give to everyone when he opens
his hand and fills every living creature with his blessing? What then is the
reason?

Clearly it is this, that they do not see Christ when he is taken up from
them; in other words, they do not ponder how he left them orphans, that they
are pilgrims and strangers on earth, that as long as they are still held in the
frightful prison of the body, they cannot be with Christ. Further, if people of this
type have remained under a burden for a long time, they are overwhelmed and
sink down, or else they are in a sort of hell, so that they never breathe fully in
the light of the Lord’s mercies and in the Spirit’s freedom which alone makes
our yoke easy and our burden light.

The source of such a pernicious lukewarmness is that their inclination,
that is, their will, has not yet been purified. Gravely diverted and allured by their
own craving, they do not choose the good as they know it. They are fond of little
earthly consolations for their flesh, whether in word, or in sign, or in deed, or in
anything else. If they sometimes take a break from these things, they do not
wholly break with them. Hence their inclinations are rarely directed toward
God, and their compunction is not constant, but intermittent. Now a soul
subject to these distractions cannot be satisfied with the Lord’s visitations. The
more it is emptied of the distractions, the more fully will it be satisfied by the
visitations. If it is greatly emptied, it will be greatly satisfied; if it is barely
emptied, it will be barely satisfied. Surely if you examine further, one can never
be mixed with the other for all eternity. When the oil did not meet with an empty
vessel, it had to stop flowing. New wine is put only in new wineskins so that both
may be preserved. So too spirit and flesh, fire and lukewarmness, do not abide
in the same domicile, especially since lukewarmness is wont to provoke the Lord
himself to vomit.

5 Sermons for the Summer Season – Bernard of Clairvaux – CF53 – Cistercian Publications – pg 39 – Kalamazoo, MI –
1991.