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Vigils Reading
February 29
BE CONVERTED TO GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux5
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“Be converted to Me with all your heart,” says the Lord Almighty, “in
fasting, and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your
garments, and turn to the Lord your God.” What does it mean, dearest brethren,
that the Lord here commands us to turn to Him? For He is everywhere, He fills
all things and at the same time contains all things… This, my brethren, is a
secret of divine wisdom, a secret which is communicated only to the friends of
God. It is a “mystery of the kingdom of God” which is revealed privately to the
disciples. “Unless you be converted,” said the Lord, “and become like little
children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven”. Now I see clearly where
He wants us to turn. We must turn to that little Child in order to learn from
Him, because He is “meek and humble of heart”.
But let us now see how we should turn to this little One, to this Master of
meekness and humility. “Be converted to Me,” He says, “with all your heart.”
My brethren, had His words been simply “Be converted to Me”, without any
addition, we might have replied: “That we have already done; give us now
another precept.” As a matter of fact, however, He admonishes us here of a
purely spiritual conversion which cannot be accomplished in a single day; and
would to God we were able to complete it in the whole course of the life we live
in the body! An external turning to God, unaccompanied by a conversion of the
heart and spirit is worth nothing. It is only a formal, not a true conversion,
“having the appearance indeed of godliness but lacking the power of it”.
Unhappy the monk who, devoting all his attention to outward
observances, remains ignorant of his interior, for “thinking himself to be
something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself”. For as he looks only to
the outward appearance, when that is found to be in order he judges everything
secure, unaware of that secret worm that is consuming his being. The tonsure
still remains, the religious habit is not yet put off, the regular fasts are observed
as before, the divine praises are chanted at the appointed hours. Nevertheless
the Lord says of such a one, “His heart is far from Me”…
Therefore, let your love be converted to God, so that henceforth you shall
love nothing besides Him, or at least nothing except for His sake. Let your fear,
too, be converted to the Lord, because every fear is perverse other than fear of
Him or on account of Him. To Him let your joy also as well as your sadness be
converted. This will happen when you no longer grieve or rejoice over anything
except according to God…
Let us therefore rend our hearts, in order that thus we may be able to keep
our garments whole. Our garments are our virtues. One can understand this
rending of heart in two senses: compunction rends the evil heart, while
compassion rends the strong heart. Both rendings are undoubtedly profitable;
for the poison of sin must not remain concealed in the heart and the depths of
compassion should not be closed to a needy neighbor, so that we ourselves may
obtain mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 St. Bernard’s Sermons for the Seasons & Principal Festivals. Bernard of Clairvaux. vol. II. The Carroll Press.
Westminster, MD. 1950. p. 76.11