Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

Today's Mass Readings

St. Bernard, whose memorial we celebrate today, was born in 1090, in Fontaines, a castle not far from Dijon, France. In 1112, Bernard entered the monastery of Cîteaux (France) and became a magnificent reformer and preacher. In one of his sermons for the feast of the Ascension, St. Bernard exhorts the faithful to humility by establishing parallels to Christ’s humility. He says, “My beloved, you must persevere in the lessons which you have learned: raise yourselves up by humility. That is the way: there is no other. He who seeks to make progress some other way falls more quickly than he climbs. Humility alone exalts and leads to life.” Humility, for Bernard, is the imitation of Christ. Christ took on human flesh, manifesting God’s love and leaving us an example to follow.

We might understand humility as the realization of our need for and our dependence on God. In order to be in relationship with God, we first need to desire and want God. We have to accept the invitation of Divine life that God extends to us. The parable of the king inviting guests to his feast gives us a sense of what rejecting the invitation looks like: “Some ignored the invitation and went away” — “They refused to come.”

We ignore God far often that we would like to admit. We receive so many gifts from God, so many moments of grace, but we ignore them because of inattentiveness, carelessness, and also because we convince ourselves that we do not need God. On the contrary, humility enables us to make the change from a “self-centered existence” to a “God-centered life.” A God-centered life is always looking and noticing the activity of grace, in the familiar and the unexpected, with the hope of seeking God in all things.

Reflection Question: How is God not the center of my life? What do I need to change in order to place God at the center of my life?

Reflection by Fr. Paul Sheller, OSB