As it is St Bernard's feast day, it seems right to say a few words about what one of his most famous modern 'sons' said about him. Thomas Merton had an uneasy relationship with his order's most prominent early leader. There is no question that Bernard was a towering figure in the mediaeval church and, indeed, in wider society and Merton wrote of his appreciation of Bernard's writings. His hesitations about Bernard were partly to do with his character, which Merton found unappealing, partly to do with his support for the Second Crusade, and partly that he found bernard's writing evoked in him a repsonse that was more scholarly than mystical. Merton did recognise that Bernard was a man of his time and that his support for the crusade was a sincere and religious one, a motivation not shared by many of its prosecutors, but Merton's own work for peace was clearly in contradiction to the aspect of Bernard's life.
Most of Merton's writing about Bernard comes from his earlier life as a monk when he was immersing himself in the traditions and sources of his Order, but he maintained a strong appreciation all through his writing life of the central place that Bernard must hold for Cistercians. And I don't think this appreciation was grudging, even if it was not unambiguous. Like all religious at the time of the Second Vatican Council, Merton felt deeply drawn to recover the early charisms of his Order and part of that recovery must include an understanding of Bernard (among others).
There can be no doubt that there is brilliance in Bernard's writing, especially in his sermons on the Song of Songs, and I find some of his explorations to be quite captivating in their imagery and subtlety. As Merton knew, much of Bernard's brilliance lies in his exegetical approach. His 74th sermon has a lovely passage in which he speaks unusually autobiographically about the times when he knows that The Word has come to him. He speaks 'as a fool' and shows the inadequacy of the language of 'inside' or 'outside', 'depth' or 'height' when it comes to describing the place wherein God is known. The way he knows that God has been present is that 'as soon as he came within he roused my sleeping soul to wakefulness.' 'Mindfulness' is not a new idea...! Bernard then goes on to use a dizzying sequence of biblical metaphors to show the way in which an awakened heart is enflamed, healed and moved to adoration.
Merton might not have been able to go beyond a kind of detached admiration of Bernard, but his insistance that we have to tangle with him and cannot ignore him is right. Christian insight comes in many forms and Bernard's mind and energy bring something distinctive to our understanding of how we engage with scripture and with the world.
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