Bernardus, Doctor Mellifluus

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux is a Doctor of the Church. He was a twelfth century Cistercian Abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux, and an edifying example of holiness to the monks under his care.

“Amor” or “Amo” (Love) seemed to be a popular word in his vocabulary. “Amor per se sufficit; is per se placet” (Love is self-sufficient; it is pleasing to itself). “Amo quia amo; amo ut amem” (I love because I love; I love in order to love). “Magna res amor, si tamen ad suum recurrat principium, si suæ origini redditus, si refusus suo fonti” (Love is a great thing, only if it returns to its beginning, if it returns to its origin, if it flows back to its fount). And Saint Bernard went on to say that love must always draw from that endless stream.

The greatness of love is true because it is caused by the greatness of God – Who is Love. God is the Beginning, the Origin, the Fount and Endless Stream of love. Saint Bernard said that love is the only adequate means by which the creature may respond to its Creator, although the weakness of the creature will always make that response inadequate.

This holy man of God asks: “Why should Love not be loved?” Saint Bernard talks about emptying ourselves, “renouncing all other affections” submitting all our “being to Love alone,” responding “to Love by giving love in return.”

This is a broken world we live in and we are a fallen nature. We will never be able to give back to God what He has given to us. And so, Saint Bernard asks the frightening question: “Can it be that all will perish… simply because it is futile to race against a Giant, or to contend with Honey in sweetness, with the Lamb in gentleness, with the Lily in whiteness, with the Sun in splendor, with Love in love?”

If justice always prevailed over mercy, then these examples from this Doctor of the Church would be a blood pressure raising thing to ponder for anyone with a conscience. But this saint and heavenly intercessor won’t let us go there. He offers the answer: “Even though the creature loves less than the Creator… nevertheless if he loves with all his being, he lacks nothing.”

There’s great hope in that statement but great conviction is required of the creature. God must be loved above all things; He must be the Center of our lives. Do we love with all our being? Does our love return to its Origin, to its Source, to Love Himself.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of the Christian life (cf. CCC 1324). The document from the Synod of Bishops XI Ordinary General Assembly reads: “Receiving Communion means to enter into communion with the Lord and the saints of the Church, both in heaven and on earth. Thus, Communion and contemplation follow each other. We cannot receive sacramental Communion, without making it personal… it is the sacrament of infinite value.” The document also teaches that Communion and Adoration are inseparable. “Adoration of the Eucharist begins in Communion and leads to acts of Eucharistic piety, adoring God the Father, in Spirit and in Truth, in the risen and living Christ, truly present among us.”

If Communion and Adoration are inseparable, then our reception of the Eucharist at Mass does not end there. We are called to Eucharistic piety by also adoring our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; in adoring the One we love with all our being, the One Who loved us first. During Eucharistic Adoration, consider keeping close to your heart these words of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: “Lord Jesus, what has made You so small? Love!” Jesus continues to suffer in the Blessed Sacrament, continues to make Himself vulnerable by permitting Himself to be contained in a Monstrance or in the Tabernacle. How deeply we must love, how small we must become when meditating on the words of Sacred Scripture and Saint John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). We will never be able to compete with our Lord’s deliberate “smallness,” but if we love Him with all our being, we lack nothing.

Sancte Bernarde, ora pro nobis!

The Sacrament of Holy Orders

Happy Feast of Saint Pius V. The following is from the Catechism of the Council of Trent. 

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Importance of Holy Orders

If one attentively considers the nature and essence of the other Sacraments, it will readily be seen that they all depend on the Sacrament of Orders to such an extent that without it some of them could not be constituted or administered at all; while others would be deprived of all their solemn ceremonies, as well as of a certain part of the religious respect and exterior honor accorded to them.

The Sacrament’s Dignity

Bishops and priests being, as they are, God's interpreters and ambassadors, empowered in His name to teach mankind the divine law and the rules of conduct, and holding, as they do, His place on earth, it is evident that no nobler function than theirs can be imagined.

In all ages, priests have been held in the highest honor; yet the priests of the New Testament far exceed all others. For the power of consecrating and offering the Body and Blood of our Lord and of forgiving sins, which has been conferred on them, not only has nothing equal or like to it on earth, but even surpasses human reason and understanding.

Not For Everyone

The burden of this great office, therefore, should not be rashly imposed on anyone, but is to be conferred on those only who by their holiness of life, their knowledge, faith and prudence, are able to bear it. Let no one take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God as Aaron was; and they are called by God who are called by the lawful ministers of His Church.

The Power and Its Greatness

The power of orders not only embraces the power of consecrating the Eucharist, but also fits and prepares the souls of men for its reception. It also embraces all else that can have any reference to the Eucharist. Christ our Lord ... was a Priest, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchisedech. For He it is Who, Himself endowed with the supreme power of granting grace and remitting sins, left to His Church this power, although He limited it in extent and attached it to the Sacraments.

The Priesthood

The chief and most necessary quality requisite in him who is to be ordained a priest is that he be recommended by integrity of life and morals. The priest is bound to give to others the example of a holy and innocent life. There is required of the priest not only that knowledge which concerns the use and administration of the Sacraments; but he should also be versed in the science of Sacred Scripture, so as to be able to instruct the people in the mysteries of the Christian faith and the precepts of the divine law, lead them to piety and virtue, and reclaim them from sin. The priest's duties are twofold. The first is to consecrate and administer the Sacraments properly; the second is to instruct the people entrusted to him in all that they must know or do in order to be saved.

 

Mary Must Be in Our Interior Life

Our Holy Father of jubilant memory, Saint John Paul II, wrote in Redemptoris Mater that “in the mystery of Christ she [Mary] is present even before the creation of the world, as the one whom the Father has chosen as Mother of His Son in the Incarnation. And, what is more, together with the Father, the Son has chosen her, entrusting her eternally to the Spirit of holiness. In an entirely special and exceptional way Mary is united to Christ, and similarly she is eternally loved in this beloved Son, this Son Who is One being with the Father, in Whom is concentrated all the glory of grace”.

Twice does the word “eternally” appear in that statement from the Holy Father. God -- Father Son and Holy Spirit sees everything with the Eyes of eternity. This is how Mary is present in God’s Eyes even before we read in Genesis, “Fiat lux” – “Let there be light.” In Genesis “darkness was upon the face of the deep” before God commanded light to appear. The eternal words, “Fiat lux” travels to the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and once again Light appears. This Light will also illuminate the darkness, the darkness that sinful man had sentenced himself to.

“Fiat” or “so be it” intimates self-surrender and trust. The fiat of the creation story, that eternal word, flows from the lips of the Woman in order that our ears may hear, our souls may ponder, and by learning from this Lady’s example, our hearts may keep: “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” – “Be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Eternity’s voice comes to us in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We read in the hour of Matins: “Et qui creavit me, requievit in tabernaculo meo” – “And He Who created me, rested in my tabernacle” (Sirach 24:12). Clearly Mary is present in this verse even though the verse itself was written in a moment of time long before Mary was conceived in time. Her womb is the tabernacle in which her Creator rested and clothed Himself in human flesh. Continuing, we read: “In electis meis mitte radices” – “Take root in My elect” (ibid. 24:13).

Who are God’s elect? The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers these words: “Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, ‘the holy city’ of God, ‘the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community. The beatific vision, in which God opens Himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion” (CCC 1045). Thus, first and foremost, God’s elect are those who already enjoy the beatific vision. We cannot overlook, however, that everyone is called to this greatness, to eternal blessedness. Our Lady, by means of her Assumption has taken root in God’s elect. We, who desire to wholeheartedly embrace the call to holiness, must allow our Blessed Mother to be a part of our interior life, to take root in our soul.

The eternal God rests in our tabernacle. Mary must be permitted to dwell there also because she is the perfect adorer. She teaches us how to properly adore the God within us. Saint Louis Marie de Montfort wrote is his Secret of Mary that “she leads every soul straight to God and to union with Him.” Sometimes we forget that we share an incomprehensible dignity: Mary is the Mother of Jesus – and our Mother. We share the same Mother with our Redeemer. That thought and reality alone is worth hours of solitude in a desert cave.  

Saint Julian Eymard said: “Kind Mother, come with me, for a mother always accompanies her child. Without you, I shall not know what to say to Jesus.” Precisely! No one knows the child like the mother, therefore, no one knows Jesus like Mary. She is the key to a richer interior life. She can help us to grow in communion with Jesus. Saint Julian Eymard adds: “Mary adored with the most submissive faith. She adored her hidden Son, veiled under a strange form. She adored that Heart so inflamed with love, whence issued the Holy Eucharist. Mary's adoration was profound, interior, intimate.” Mary knows that she is the perfect adorer and she would like nothing more than to have her children become perfect adorers.

It was no accident that our Blessed Lady was present on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit, Who appeared as tongues of fire, finds Mary irresistible. She is the chaste Spouse of the great Paraclete. Once again, from Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, this time in True Devotion to Mary he writes: “When the Holy Spirit finds His Spouse in a soul, He flies to that soul, to communicate Himself to it, to fill it with His Presence, in proportion as He discovers there the presence and the fullness of His Spouse.”

Mary must be a part of our interior life. Temptation flees from her. She can keep us in a state of grace. Unfortunately, as Saint Louis Marie de Montfort adds: “One of the major reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now work blinding wonders of grace in our souls is that He does not find in us a sufficiently strong union with Mary His indissoluble Spouse.”

Doctor Mellifluus

Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a French Abbot, Doctor of the Church, and a reformer of the Cistercian Order. Pope Pius XII wrote an encyclical on Saint Bernard titled, Doctor Mellifluus, which means "the Honey-flowing Doctor" - signifying that Saint Bernard's praise of Jesus flowed like sweet honey.   

His praise of Love Himself is found often in his vocabulary:

Amor per se sufficit; is per se placet - Love is self-sufficient; it is pleasing to itself.

Amo quia amo; amo ut amem - I love because I love; I love in order to love.

Magna res amor, si tamen ad suum recurrat principium, si suæ origini redditus, si refusus suo fonti - Love is a great thing, only if it returns to its beginning, if it returns to its origin, if it flows back to its fount.

Saint Bernard also wrote that love must always draw from that endless stream.

The greatness of love is true because it is caused by the greatness of God – Who is Love. God is the Beginning, the Origin, the Fount and Endless Stream of love. Saint Bernard said that love is the only adequate means by which the creature may respond to its Creator, although the weakness of the creature will always make that response inadequate.

This holy man of God asks: “Why should Love not be loved?” Saint Bernard talks about emptying ourselves, “renouncing all other affections” submitting all our “being to Love alone,” responding “to Love by giving love in return.”

This is a broken world we live in and we are a fallen nature. We will never be able to give back to God what He has given to us. And so, Saint Bernard asks the frightening question: “Can it be that all will perish . . . simply because it is futile to race against a Giant, or to contend with Honey in sweetness, with the Lamb in gentleness, with the Lily in whiteness, with the Sun in splendor, with Love in love?”

If justice always prevailed over mercy, then these examples from this Doctor of the Church would be a blood pressure raising thing to ponder for anyone with a conscience. But this saint and heavenly intercessor won’t let us go there. He offers the answer: “Even though the creature loves less than the Creator . . . nevertheless if he loves with all his being, he lacks nothing.”

There’s great hope in that statement but great conviction is required of the creature. God must be loved above all things; He must be the Center of our lives. Do we love with all our being? Does our love return to its Origin, to its Source, to Love Himself.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of the Christian life (cf. CCC 1324). The document from the Synod of Bishops XI Ordinary General Assembly reads: “Receiving Communion means to enter into communion with the Lord and the saints of the Church, both in heaven and on earth. Thus, Communion and contemplation follow each other. We cannot receive sacramental Communion, without making it personal . . . it is the sacrament of infinite value.” The document also teaches that Communion and Adoration are inseparable. “Adoration of the Eucharist begins in Communion and leads to acts of Eucharistic piety, adoring God the Father, in Spirit and in Truth, in the risen and living Christ, truly present among us.”

If Communion and Adoration are inseparable, then our reception of the Eucharist at Mass does not end there. We are called to Eucharistic piety by also adoring our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament - in adoring the One we love with all our being - the One Who loved us first. During Eucharistic Adoration, consider keeping close to your heart these words of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: “Lord Jesus, what has made You so small?  Love!” Jesus continues to suffer in the Blessed Sacrament, continues to make Himself vulnerable by permitting Himself to be contained in a Monstrance or in the Tabernacle. How deeply we must love, how small we must become when meditating on the words of Sacred Scripture, for example, the proclamation of Saint John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). We will never be able to compete with our Lord’s deliberate “smallness,” but if we love Him with all our being, we lack nothing.

Today in the liturgy the Church asks for that same spirit of Saint Bernard, which burned with zeal for the house of God, and enlightened others in the Church.   

Sancte Bernarde, ora pro nobis!

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Prologue

“The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory” (Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII, 1950).

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was declared as an infallible dogma in 1950 by Pope Pius XII, but the belief in Mary's Assumption dates back to the early days of the Church.  A very ancient writer, Modestus of Jerusalem asserts: “As the most glorious Mother of Christ, our Savior and God and the giver of life and immortality, has been endowed with life by Him, she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with Him Who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to Himself in a way known only to Him.” 

There have been many writings from the saints on the subject: John Damascene, Germanus of Constantinople, Anthony of Padua, Albert the Great, Bernardine of Siena, Robert Bellarmine and Francis de Sales, to name only some.  The Assumption is not explicitly found in Sacred Scripture but it is there implicitly.  Here are some examples: “Arise, O Lord, into Your resting place: You and the Ark, which You have sanctified” (Psalm 132:8).  “The Queen takes her place at Your right Hand” (Psalm 45:10).  “Who is she that goes up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?” (Songs 3:6).  “Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?” (Songs 8:5).  Perhaps one of the most convincing and prophetic passages in the Old Testament is found in the First Book of Kings, supporting the Catholic belief that Jesus is the King of kings, Mary His Mother is the Queen who is with Him in His eternal Kingdom, interceding on our behalf: “Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage.  Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right.  ‘There is one small favor I would ask of you,’ she said.  ‘Do not refuse me.’  ‘Ask it my mother,’ the king said to her, ‘for I will not refuse you’” (1 Kings 2:19-20).

First Reading Commentary

In the Old Testament the covenant that was kept in the ark was a symbol of God’s presence among His people.  The Blessed Virgin Mary carried in her womb not a symbol of God’s presence, but God Himself.  Because of this, Mary was the human Ark -- the reality and fulfillment of what the ark of the Old Covenant symbolized. 

In this, the Book of Revelation, we read about a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  There are two ways to interpret this.  First, the woman is the Church which shines with the light of faith under the guidance and protection of the Sun of Justice.  The moon represents the changeable things of this world of which the affections of the faithful will rise above; hence, those changeable things will be under our feet.  And so, the Church is clothed with Christ, with the changeable things of this world under her feet and is governed by Christ through the twelve stars who are the Apostles. 

The second way to interpret this is to say that the woman is our Blessed Lady who is clothed with Christ and her crown of twelve stars signifies that she is the Queen of heaven, Queen of the Church, Queen of the Twelve Apostles and Queen of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Through this interpretation the Church proclaims that our Blessed Mother was taken to heaven, body and soul to reign as our Queen and Mother.  The woman is in pain as she labors to bring forth spiritual children along with Christ in the midst of persecutions and afflictions.  The dragon is often identified as the devil or Satan.  The seven heads and ten horns represent those who serve the dragon by persecuting the servants of almighty God.  This is alluded to in the Book of Psalms: “The kings of the earth rise up and the princes conspire together against the Lord and against His anointed” (Psalm 2:2).  Also, in the Book of Genesis we read as God rebukes the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.”  ‘And to the woman he said,’ “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children” (Genesis 3:15-16). 

In the heart of Mary and the Church is produced the Word, persecuted by the enemies and the unbelievers of this world.  Saint John the Evangelist, the author of the Book of Revelation, must have reasoned that this woman was our Lady.  How could he have not thought this?  On the Cross, Christ gave her to him to be his Mother (cf. John 19:27).  Additionally, tradition teaches us that after Christ’s Ascension, Saint John and Mary were often in each other’s company.  While we can say the woman can be identified as either the Church or Mary, it was Saint Ambrose who taught that Mary is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ.  This was reiterated by the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. 

The dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth.  More than likely this is alluding to Lucifer being driven out of heaven bringing with him all the fallen angels who sided with him in rebellion against God.  The dragon stood before the woman who was able to flee into the desert to a place prepared for her by God.  In the early years of the Church many fled to the desert to escape persecution.  Saint Jerome points out that it was these types of occurrences that gave rise to the eremitical state of life. 

In the final verse heaven rejoices in the Church which through her trials and persecutions remained faithful to her Lord and thus was victorious over her enemies.                            

Second Reading Commentary

Saint Paul often makes the comparison between Adam and our Lord.  Adam was created into an earthly paradise but his sin corrupted that paradise.  Christ came and restored to humanity a Paradise which is not of this world.  Paul refers to our Savior as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  If Jesus is the firstfruits, then it supposes that others will rise after Him.  At the general resurrection Christ will present us to His heavenly Father as the fruits of His glorious triumph over sin and death. 

Since Paul makes the comparison between Adam and Christ, rightfully the comparison can be made between Eve and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Because of the sin of our first parents, Eve became the mother of the dead.  Because of Christ’s victory over sin and death, Mary became the Mother of all the living.  Saint Paul writes that all shall be brought to life in proper order; following Christ will be those who belong to Him.  In our Blessed Mother is the proof of what Christ has promised.  She has been lifted up to her Son, body and soul. 

Around 380 A.D. Timothy of Jerusalem wrote: “The Virgin is immortal because He Who dwelt in her took her to the regions of the Ascension.”  Additionally, Gregory of Tours in 580 wrote: “Mary, the glorious Mother of Christ, who, we believe, was a Virgin before and after childbirth, was carried to Paradise preceded by the Lord amidst the singing of angelic choirs.”  John Henry Cardinal Newman in his work, ‘Meditations and Devotions’ writes: “Was she [Mary] not nearer to Him than the greatest of the saints before her? Therefore we confidently say that our Lord, having preserved her from sin and the consequences of sin by His Passion, lost no time in pouring out the full merits of that Passion upon her body as well as her soul.” 

If you think about it, the Church really doesn’t teach anything all that differently about Mary than what the Church teaches about us.  Mary was conceived immaculately without the stain of original sin.  In Baptism, we are born to a new life in Christ; and in that new birth original sin is washed away.  Mary is in heaven, body and soul.  Christ promises the same for us.  Mary has been granted this grace ahead of time as proof that our Savior is faithful to what He promises.  

Gospel Commentary

This Gospel is a reminder of one important fact when trying to grow in the spiritual life: where there is Mary, there is Jesus.  Look for her and you’ll find Him.  Come to her and she’ll lead you to Him. 

In this Gospel are the makings of the first ever Eucharistic procession.  Mary, however, the human Tabernacle, does not need to be carried through the hill country leading to Judah; she is able to carry herself, bringing with her our Lord, her Lord and her Son.  The house of Zechariah and Elizabeth suddenly becomes a chapel for adoration.  Certainly Elizabeth, by the power of the Spirit, recognizes Mary as the Tabernacle carrying her Lord when she says: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does this happen to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” 

John the Baptist recognizes his Lord as he leaps for joy in the womb of his mother Elizabeth. 

In Mary’s Magnificat are the eternal words: “From this day all generations will call me blessed.”  It is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the angel Gabriel called her blessed at the Annunciation, that Elizabeth calls her blessed at the Visitation, that Mary proclaims her own blessedness for all generations in the Magnificat. 

Saint Bede asserts that in her eternal blessed state we hold her up to the veneration of both men and angels.  Saint Jerome adds that Elizabeth too is blessed, yet the Excellency of the Mother of God far surpasses that of Elizabeth and every other woman, as the great luminary outshines the smaller stars. 

Mary brought our Lord into the world.  She gave Him to us.  She presented Him to Simeon at the temple; she presents Him to us as our Savior.  She was present for many of the events of His human life; and after His Ascension He called her to Himself to be with Him in heaven.  He also calls us to heaven to spend eternity with Him; and if we so choose, Mary can be our tour guide in this life’s journey, to direct us along the path that leads to her Son. 

In the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, are the words: “She [Mary], by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.” 

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians” (CCC 966).