On the Dispositions Required in Those Who Celebrate the Feast
Bernard of Clairvaux
About the Text: In this Christmas Sermon, St. Bernard reflects on the birth of Christ today. Certainly, he was born two thousand years ago, but we proclaim at Christmas that today is born to us Christ the Lord! His birth is not simply a past event but a constant event should we grant him this. In presenting the dispositions necessary for those who celebrate Christmas, Bernard speaks to the third of Christ’s advents: the coming of Christ into our hearts, there to dwell for all time and eternity.
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“We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and he hath sent an ambassador to the nations” (Ob 1:1).
We have heard a rumour full of grace, worthy of all acceptance. “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Juda.” My soul is melted at this word, and my spirit burns within me through eager desire to proclaim it to you. Jesus is, interpreted, Saviour. What so necessary to the lost? What so desirable to the wretched? What so welcome to the hopeless? Without this gracious promise, whence should we have obtained redemption? Unless some new and unexpected help had arisen for us, how could we have had the faintest hope of salvation, subject as we were and are to a law of sin, living in a body of death, surrounded by the wickedness of this present life, which is only a place of affliction? Perhaps you will tell me that you do desire salvation, you do desire a cure, but that, knowing your own weakness, you shrink from the sharpness of the remedy. Fear not. Christ is all sweetness and gentleness. He is full of mercy, for He is “anointed with the oil of gladness beyond his fellows”—that is, beyond those who enjoy at least a share of that unction, though they do not receive it in its plenitude.
When, however, you hear that Jesus is sweet and gentle, do not suppose Him a weak and inefficient Saviour, for He is the “Son of God.” Such as the Father is, such is the Son. He has the power to do whatever He wills. Had your Saviour been an angel, or an archangel, or anyone from the higher orders of blessed spirits, you would have had no cause for discontent. Since, however, He is one Who has inherited a much more excellent name than they—Jesus Christ, the Son of God—He ought to be received with all devotion.
And notice that Gabriel commended these His titles clearly when he announced “a great joy” to the shepherds, for he said: “This day is born to you a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord.” Let us, then, exult and repeatedly rejoice in this birth, because it so convincingly persuades us of the usefulness of salvation, of the sweetness of the anointing, and of the majesty of the Son of God that nothing is wanted to its glory.
Let us rejoice as we ponder upon this sweet message. Let us repeat to one another this delightful speech: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Juda.” Let no one be so indevout, so ungrateful, so irreligious, as to say: This is nothing new; it was heard long ago; Christ was born long ago. I answer: Yes, long ago and before long ago. No one will be surprised at my words if he remembers that expression of the Prophet, In aeternum et ultra, “for ever and ever,” or, “ for ever and beyond it.” Christ, then, is born not only before our times, but before all time. That Nativity made “darkness its hiding-place,” or, more truly, “it abides in light inaccessible”; it hides in the bosom of the Father as in the “thick and shady mountain.” Therefore, that this mysterious Nativity might to some extent be made known, Jesus Christ was born in time, born of flesh, born in flesh, “the Word was made flesh.”
What wonder, then, if to-day the Church says, “Christ, the Son of God, is born,” when so long before it had been said of Him, “A Child is born to us”! This word began to be heard in the ancient days, and none of the saints of the old law ever grew weary of its repetition. So that we may say, “Jesus Christ yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.”
God revealed this His secret counsel to the man “according to his own heart”—the man to whom “he swore truth, and he will not make it void: Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne” (Ps 131:11). For this reason it is that He is born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the city of David—that is, for the sake of God’s truth and to confirm the promises made to the Fathers. This birth was “at sundry times and in divers manners spoken of in times past to the fathers by the prophets” (Hb 1:1).
Hearing of this birth of our Saviour, is there one amongst us who does not say in his heart, “It is good for me to adhere to my God” (Ps 72:28), or those other words of the same Prophet, “Shall not my soul be subject to God?” (Ps 61:1) In this day’s most joyful announcement it is not said “has been born,” but “is born”; it is not treated as a past event, but as one actually taking place. “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Juda.” For, as He continues still to be in a manner immolated daily whilst we announce His death, so He seems to be born again while we devoutly commemorate His Nativity.
To-morrow, therefore, we shall see the majesty of God, but with us, amongst us, not in Himself. We shall see Majesty in humility, Power in weakness, the God-man. For He is Emmanuel—”God with us”—and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us.” Finally, from that time and ever since “we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father” (Jn 1:14)—a glory, therefore, “full of grace and truth.”
He is born, then—but where? In Bethlehem of Juda. It would ill become us to leave Bethlehem unnoticed. “Let us go over to Bethlehem,” say the shepherds. They do not say, “Let us pass by Bethlehem.” What though it be a little town? What if it does seem to be the least in Judea? Is not such a town becoming for Him Who, “being rich, became poor for our sake,” and Who, though He was the “Lord great and exceedingly to be praised,” was born for us a Little One, and said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3)? Therefore He chose a stable and a manger—yea, a despicable hut, a shed fit only for beasts, that we may know that He it is “Who raiseth up the poor one from the dunghill,” and “saveth men and beasts”—He Who said, “Unless you be converted and become as this little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3). Would that we also might be found to be a Bethlehem of Juda, so that in us also He might deign to be born, and that we might deserve to hear: “To you who fear my name the sun of justice shall arise” (Mal 4:2) Perhaps this refers to what we said above, that we are to see Majesty amongst us, and that there is need of sanctification and preparation, for, according to the Psalmist, “Judea is become his sanctification”—that is, we are all cleansed and sanctified by confession. Bethlehem—as “ House of bread “—seems to relate still more to the preparation for the feast. For how could he be ready to receive so great a guest who said, “In my house there is no bread” (Is 3:7)? The man in the Gospel was likewise unprepared when he was obliged to rouse his friend in the middle of the night, and say: “My friend has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.”
The Prophet tells us that the just man’s heart “is ready to hope in the Lord,” and that “it is strengthened, and shall not be moved” (Ps 3:8). The heart, then, that is not strengthened is not ready. But we know from the same Prophet that “bread strengthens the heart of man” (Ps 103:15). He, therefore, who forgot to eat his bread had not his heart ready, but had left it dry and lifeless. The just man, on the contrary, keeps his heart ready and unmoved, prepared to keep the Commandments of God. Like the Apostle, he forgets the things which are behind, and stretches forth himself to those that are before (Ph 3:13). Thus you see there are some things which we must fly from, and about which a certain forgetfulness is desirable. There are others which should never be lost sight of. It is said of one man that he was unmindful of the Lord his Creator, of another that he kept Him ever before his eyes, having forgotten his people and his father’s house. This last forgot the things that are seen and are upon the earth; the other those that are not seen and are heavenly. The good Christian forgets the things that are his own to remember those of Jesus Christ. Such a one is ready to see the majesty of God within him, while the negligent and forgetful Christian is very unprepared. He is not the house of bread in which our Saviour dwells. He is not the Manasses to whom Christ, Who rules Israel, appears, and Who as God “sits upon the cherubim,” and to Whom the Psalmist exclaims, “Shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses” (Ps 79:1–3).
I think that these three men represent all that are saved, and to whom another Prophet alludes as Noe, Daniel, and Job (Ez 14:14); and that they also prefigure the three shepherds, to whom the angel announced “a great joy” at the birth of the “angel of the great council.” Perhaps they represent also the three Magi. In this sense, it may not seem unfitting to attribute to Ephraim, which name means “Fruitfulness,” the offering of the incense, since to offer worthy incense in the odour of sweetness is the office of those whom God has appointed to go and bring forth fruit—that is, the prelates of the Church. And, as Benjamin means “Son of the right hand,” he must give the gold—that is, the substance of this world—in order that the faithful people may be placed on the right hand at the Last Day, and deserve to hear from the Judge, “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat” (Mt 25:35), and the rest. As for Manasses, if he would be one of whom “the Lord appears,” let him offer the myrrh of mortification, and this, I think, is especially required in our sacred profession of the religious life.
We have digressed. Let us now return “to Bethlehem, and see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord hath showed to us” (Lk 2:15). It is the house of bread, and we have already said that “it is good for us to be there.” For where the word of God is there will be no lack of the bread which strengthens the heart, as the Prophet says, “Strengthen thou me in thy words” (Ps 118:28). We also read, “Man liveth by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God”; then he liveth in Christ, and Christ liveth in him. In his heart Christ is born, to him Christ appears—Christ, Who loves not the faltering, wavering heart, but the strong and steadfast heart. One who murmurs, who hesitates, who wavers in his purpose, who thinks of returning to what he has left, of relinquishing his vow, of changing his state of life, is no Bethlehem, no house of bread. Christ is not born in such a heart as this, where the fortitude of faith and the bread of life are wanting, for the Scripture says, “The just man liveth by faith” (Hab 2:4f), and Christ, the true life of the soul, dwells in our heart by faith. Besides, how could Christ be born in that heart, how could such a one attain salvation, when the sentence is so utterly true that “he only that perseveres to the end shall be saved “? How could the proud and vacillating heart belong to a follower of the Son of God whose spirit rests only “on him that is poor, and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at his words” (Is 66:2)? For there can be no connection between eternity and such fickleness, between him who is and him who never remaineth in the same state.
But if we are strong, if we are constant in faith, if we are ready to receive our Lord, if we abound in bread, we owe it entirely to His bounty to whom we say daily, “Give us this day our daily bread,” though we have need also to add, “forgive us our trespasses,” for “if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” He is Truth itself Who is born not merely in Bethlehem, but in Bethlehem of Juda, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Let us, then, come in before His presence with praise, that we may be found both sanctified and prepared, and so may deserve to see Christ born in ourselves, His Bethlehem of Juda.
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From Sermons of St. Bernard on Advent and Christmas, 1909, 89–97.