Vigils Reading

LET US REND

OUR HEARTS

From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux

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If you grieve for your sin or your neighbor’s, you do well, and this sadness

leads to salvation. If you rejoice at the gifts of grace, this is a holy joy and a true

joy in the Holy spirit. You must rejoice in the love of Christ with your brothers,

in their successes and grieve with them in adversity, as it is written: Rejoice with

those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

This does not mean that we should value lightly the physical turning. As

we know, it is no small support for the spiritual. That is why when the Lord had

said “with all your heart” here, he immediately added “with fasting”, for that is

of the body. Yet I would have you warned, my brothers, that that means not only

abstaining from food, but from all fleshly lusts and all bodily pleasures; indeed

you must fast from vices far more than from food. But there is a bread from

which I do not wish you to fast lest you faint on the way; if you do not know what

it is, I am speaking of the bread of tears… It demands mourning of us by way of

repentance for our former way of life; it demands weeping with desire for future

beatitude. You do not have sufficient cravings for the joys to come if you do not

beg for them every day with tears; if your soul does not refuse comfort until they

come, then you know too little of them.

Let the Spirit rend your heart with his sword, which is the Word of God;

let him rend it and speedily shatter it into many fragments. There is no way to

turn to the Lord with all your heart except your heart be rent. Listen to one

whom God found to be after his own heart. My heart is ready, O God, my heart

is ready, he says – ready for both adversity and prosperity, ready for what is low

and what is lofty; ready for whatever you command. Who is faithful as David in

his going out and coming in? He used to say of sinners, Their heart is curdled

like milk, but I have meditated on your law. This is the reason for hardness of

heart and obstinacy of mind, that someone does not meditate on the law of the

Lord but on his own will.

Let us rend our hearts, dearly beloved, but keep our garments whole. Our

garments are our virtues; love is a good garment, obedience is a good garment.

Happy is the one who cares for these garments that he may not walk naked.

Happy are those whose sins are covered; love covers a multitude of sins. Let us

rend our hearts…that we may keep our garments whole, as was our Savior’s

tunic. The rending of the heart not only keeps the garment whole, but also

makes it long and of many colors, like the coat the holy patriarch Joseph gave

the son whom he loved more than the others. From this comes perseverance in

virtue, from this the many colored unity of a beautiful way of life.

We may also take this rending of the heart in another way; if the heart is

wicked it may be rent by confession; if hard, by compassion. Is not an ulcer rent

so that the diseased matter may flow out? Is not the heart rent to overflow in

compassion? Both rendings are expedient, that the poison of sin may not be

hidden in the heart, and we may not shut off our compassion from our

neighbor’s need, that we may receive mercy from Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is

over all, blessed forever.