In this article, I will explore St. Bernard’s views on hope in Sermon 37 and the opening of Sermon 38 in his commentary on the Song of Songs. However, to gain a deeper understanding of St. Bernard’s teachings on the core of Christian hope, it is advisable to explore his sermons on Psalm 90. These sermons beautifully illustrate the theme of hope for eternal salvation.
To better approach the content of Sermon 37 on the Song of Songs, I will present a summary of Sermon 1 on Psalm 90 in the chart below. In this sermon, St. Bernard explains three false hopes: those of the atheists, the desperate, and the hedonists. He concludes that these people experience only the ’emotion’ of hope, rather than the ‘virtue’ of hope.
What is hope? Is it the feeling of getting away scot-free [as the atheists and hedonists do]? No, St. Bernard underscores, hope is trust in achieving eternal salvation.
Zealous monks can also falsely hope when they put their trust in their spiritual achievements. They think that they are better than others for having amassed a whole wealth of merits by giving themselves to watching, fasting, labors, and other such things. Putting hope in their merits, they do not fear the Lord and feel entitled to judge others, criticizing and slandering them. They join the line of the atheists by failing to fear the Lord.
For this sermon, we bring home the notion that for St. Bernard, hope is not a feeling [I hope to be successful, to become rich, to have my dream-job…]. Hope is rather a covenant posture: a relationship with the God who has come, is coming, and will come again, a trust in His eternal plan of salvation.
In Sermon 37 on the Song of Songs, Bernard teaches how to attain the covenantal posture necessary to achieve the hope of eternal salvation. Hope for eternal salvation is the theological virtue of hope. God instils this virtue in us at baptism. We hope by God and for God.
The sermon begins with a question: ‘Is hope of salvation compatible with ignorance about God?’
The obvious answer is ‘no’.
Therefore, Bernard focuses on knowing God. In previous sermons, he had already explained that “No one is saved without self-knowledge since it is the source of that humility on which salvation depends, and of the fear of the Lord that is as much the beginning of salvation as of wisdom.”
True self-knowledge—knowledge of one’s own sinfulness—generates the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, in turn, generates the theological virtue of hope.
Self-knowledge leads us to fear God. Then, when we experience forgiveness, we have hope, and it is through hope that we begin to love Him. As we progress on our journey of conversion, our love for Him grows stronger and stronger.
Thus, the virtue of hope is related to wisdom, because the fear and love of God are the beginning and end of wisdom. It motivates beginners to perform good works and avoid offending the Beloved. It then inspires the proficient to delight in the goodness of the Beloved by resting in His mercy. It promises persevering monks a taste of wisdom, a token of eternal happiness.
“You therefore have sown righteousness for yourself if by means of true self-knowledge you have learned to fear God, to humble yourself, to shed tears, to distribute alms and participate in other works of charity; if you have disciplined your body with fasting and prayers, if you have wearied your heart with acts of penance and heaven with your petitions. This is what it means to sow righteousness.”
“And can the hope of this great happiness be without happiness?”
In response to his rhetorical question, St Bernard reflects on Psalm 125, which is linked to the concepts of sowing and harvesting.
While we are exiled on earth, we suffer in hope, offering our good intentions and tears. Persevering in good works produces the fruit of joy; “…rightly do they (those who return from exile) shout for joy, since they bring back sheaves of glory. But you say: ‘That is for the resurrection on the last day; a long time to wait!’
The conditions or circumstances do not matter. Hope breeds perseverance in good works.
“Do not permit your will to be broken, do not yield to pusillanimity; you have in the meantime the first-fruits of the Spirit, which even now you may reap with joy. “Sow for yourselves righteousness, and reap the hope of life (Hos 10:12).”
So, in answer to the question, “Can this great hope of salvation be without happiness?’ Bernard responds, “No, because, as the Apostle states, we rejoice in hope” (Rom. 12:12). Hope brings us joy now, not in the future.”
To convince us of this truth, Bernard brings the example of David. “David, when he expressed the hope of entering the house of God, said that it gave him happiness now, not in the future. Eternal life was not yet his, but his hope reached out to it; so that in his heart he experienced the Scriptural truth that the just man finds joy not only in the reward but even in the expectation of it.”
The assurance of forgiveness of sins brings joy to the heart where the seed of righteousness is sown. A holier life marked by good works—the fruit of the efficacy of the grace received—fosters hope. In this life, we already gather the fruit of our tears, and in some way, we see God and hear his voice saying, “Give him a share of the fruits of his hands.” Recalling his own experience of tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, St. Bernard bursts into prayer.
“Lord Jesus, how pleasant and sweet must you be to him whom you have not merely blessed with forgiveness of sins but endowed too with the gift of holiness; and along with that, added to the treasury of his goods, the promise of eternal life. Happy the man with all this for a harvest, who now has the fruits of holiness and, in the end, eternal life. It was but right that he who wept when faced with the truth about himself should rejoice on seeing the Lord, whose all-merciful eyes gave him strength to carry those precious sheaves: forgiveness, sanctification, and the hope of eternal life. It bears out the truth in the Prophet’s words: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in jubilation!” We find the two kinds of knowledge within these words: that of ourselves in the sowing in tears; and that of God, in the reaping in joy.”
We could make this prayer our own.
Hope does not disappoint because God’s love fills us with assurance, since already in this life we are given a foretaste of the Lord’s sweetness. Bernard clearly alludes to the Eucharistic food. Also in his Sermons on Psalm 90, St. Bernard speaks of the Eucharistic viaticum as the food that sustains our hope on our journey while we rest in God’s dwelling place, the Church.
Bernard concludes by stating that this twofold knowledge – knowing ourselves by sowing in tears (self-knowledge), and knowing God, by reaping in joy – prevents us from becoming conceited by any other knowledge we might acquire.
Remarkably, Bernard sees the theological virtue of hope as the fruit of this twofold knowledge: self-knowledge and knowledge of God. Without self-knowledge in light of God’s Word, we cannot avoid pride, and the proud do not know God. Cultivating this twofold knowledge allows us to consider worldly knowledge in the proper light.
Worldly knowledge, he says, may confer earthly gain and honor, but it pales in comparison with the hope conceived in the soul and the deeply rooted joy that stems from this hope. This hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Hope does not disappoint because love fills us with assurance. The honor of being a child of God is unparalleled. Proof of this is that neither the proud nor the hopeless can claim a place among the saints: the former lacks self-knowledge, while the latter lacks knowledge of God. Rather than the honor of the proud, who lack the twofold knowledge that fosters hope and joy in eternal life, Bernard would willingly choose the last place.
“If you pass through a low doorway you suffer no hurt however much you bend, but if you raise your head higher than the doorway, even by a finger’s breadth, you will dash it against the lintel and injure yourself.”
Bernard fears self-exaltation more than humiliation. Self-knowledge frees us from fear and helps us “sit down in the lowest place.” Only self-knowledge protects us from the devil’s sin and the root of all sin: pride.
In addition, the knowledge of God’s mercy prevents us from despairing and thus from following the subtle suggestions of the devil about the harsh judgment of God.
When we are “swallowed up by excessive sadness and lost in a deep depression,” We demonstrate our ignorance of God by refusing to trust in Him. We imagine Him to be harsh, severe, inflexible, cruel, and oppressive. Those who know God are always confident in his power to forgive sins.
The itinerary of Christian hope is clear. Bernard infers that the virtue of hope is the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who, after recognizing their sinful condition, repent and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to them the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, who died for our sake. Then, the Holy Spirit supports their efforts to do good works with an abundance of grace. He also gives them the gift of hope in eternal salvation, so they persevere in doing good and are received as children in the Son. ◼
