Fr. Tony’s Mid-week
Message
Bernard of
Clairvaux
August 21, 2013
Yesterday was the feast
day of Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the great spiritual lights of the High
Middle Ages. He took vows early as
a Benedictine monk, but then sought to reform what had become a somewhat lax
rule of life by organizing a tighter community at the monastery he founded at
Citeaux (from which comes the name of his form of Benedictine Monks, the
Cistercians.) Later laxness led to
a further reform of the Cistercians, resulting in the Trappist order of silent
monasticism we see at such places as Gethsemani, Kentucky, where Thomas Merton
lived and wrote.
Bernard was not simply a
contemplative, but a person of active faith who engaged in all the great
controversies of his age. He was
not always right, but always willing to stand corrected or be proved wrong if
that was necessary. Because he
defended the Jewish Community of Mainz (now Germany) from pogroms at the start
of the Second Crusade, he became known as a “Righteous Gentile” in that
tradition, leading to “Bernard” being a name common in Jewish families (e.g.,
Bernard Baruch).
Bernard wrote several
Latin hymns, including those translated now as “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded,”
and “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee.”
This latter, “Jesu Dulcis Memoria,” is more complex than most
translations would suggest. I have
translated it, trying to stress the Latin hymn’s simple form and complex play
between the outward rites and signs of the Church and what (or rather, who) they
are about. Here is my metrical translation:
Jesus,
your sweet memorial,
Fills
my heart’s joyful need.
But
sweeter honey than all
Is
your presence here indeed.
No
song ever was better sung,
No
sermon better heard,
No
sweeter doctrine ever thought,
Than
Jesus, God’s own Word.
Jesus,
hope for sinners meek,
So
kind to all who ask,
So
good to those who truly seek;
What
treasure do you mask?
No
tongue can describe it,
Nor
pen or text express;
Only
one who tastes can credit,
What
it is to love Jesus.
O
Jesus, be our joy alone,
You,
our prize to come.
Be
our brightness, you our home,
As
endless ages run. Amen
Grace
and Peace,
Fr.
Tony+
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