Vigils Reading – Louisville Cathedral

ON THE DEDICATION OF A CHURCH

By St Bernard of Clairvaux1

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Today we celebrate another glorious feast: it is the feast of the Lord’s

house, of God’s temple, of the city of the eternal King, of Christ’s bride. Let us

ask ourselves what this house of God, this temple, this city, and this bride can

be. With awe and reverence I say: It is we ourselves. I say it is we ourselves, but

in the heart of God; it is we ourselves, but by his grace and not by any merits of

our own. We humans must beware of appropri-ating what belongs to God, of

taking the glory to ourselves; otherwise, if we exalt ourselves, he will humble us

and bring us down to our proper level. On the other hand, a humble

acknowledgment of our maladies will arouse his compassion. Indeed, this is

enough to make God feed us in our hunger like a well-to-do father. So, under

his protection we shall have bread in abundance and thus become his house in

which life-giving food is never lacking.

Bear in mind also that he describes his house as a house of prayer, and

that holiness befits this house; then the purity of self-restraint will accompany

the tears of repentance, and what is already God’s house will become his temple

as well. Be holy, says the Lord, because I am holy. And the Apostle says: Do you

not realize that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy

Spirit dwells in you?

But is even holiness enough? According to the Apostle, peace too is

necessary, for he says: Strive to be at peace with everyone, and to achieve the

holiness without which no one can see God. It is peace that makes brothers

dwell together in unity and builds for our king, the true king of peace, a new city

also called Jerusalem, which means “vision of peace.”

But how can so great a king become a bridegroom, and a city a bride? This

is possible to love alone, which is as strong as death, and can do anything. Can

it not easily lift her up, when it has already brought him down?

And so, if the abundance of our food shows us to be the house of a great

Father, if holiness shows us to be God’s temple, if the sharing of a common life

shows us to be the city of the great king, and if love shows us to be the bride of

the immortal bridegroom, then we can surely say without hesitation that today’s

feast is our feast. Nor should you be surprised that such a feast is celebrated

here on earth; it is, after all, being celebrated in heaven too! For if as Truth says,

so it must be true, there is joy in heaven and even among God’s angels over a

single sinner repenting, then the joy there today must be many times greater at

so many sinners repenting. Let us then share the rejoicing of the angels, let us

share the joy of God, and let us keep today’s feast with thanksgiving, for the fact

that it is our own should make us all the more willing to celebrate it.