You have hitherto, well-beloved, gone through a great part of the Life of the Lord Jesus, in meditations. Use them reverently, joyously, willingly, stopping wherever your devotion is excited, and occupying yourself with the thoughts and affections which come to you. For this must be the business of your life, this the foundation on which you build the great fabric of your spiritual life. You must begin with this, to whatever heights you may desire to ascend afterwards, as in many places I have stated. For meditations on the Life of Christ not only sweetly nourish the soul, but they are also the preparation for a higher food. For the things which our Lord did in the Flesh are introductory to those which are wrought in the Spirit, and the ladder by which alone you can attain to contemplate them; so that you must give yourself for a while to the contemplation of His visible Life. As S. Bernard says, “I think that the principal cause why the invisible God should be seen in Flesh, and converse with men, was that those who could only love after a material manner, might have their affections drawn away from carnal objects, and fastened upon the love of His own Flesh ; and that by this means He might wean them from what was wrong, and lead them afterwards to a higher love for Himself even to the love of spiritual things .”1 And again, “He pointed out to His disciples a higher degree of love when He said, ‘ It is the spirit which quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing / 92 a And again, “In devotion of the flesh, there is for a while consolation, to him who has not the quickening spirit, in the measure in which those have it who say, ‘ The Lord Jesus is the Spirit before our face/ or again, i If we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more / 8 Indeed, we are not able to love Christ, even in the Flesh, without the Holy Spirit, and without a certain satisfaction. For the measure of this devotion is that its sweetness fills the heart, the whole affections being fastened upon Himself, and thus drawn away from all other charms. This is to love Him3 with all the heart/ For if I prefer aught else, whether of natural affection or pleasure, to the Flesh of my Lord, and this affection hinders me from fulfilling those things which by word and example He taught me, is it not clear that I by no means love Him with all my heart, when my heart is divided — a part cleaving to Him, a part turned aside to self?” In fine, He says, “‘ He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me / 1 Therefore, in brief, to love with all our heart, is to postpone everything which charms us, in ourselves, or in others, to the sacred love of the Humanity of Christ And I include, also, the glory of the world; for the glory of the world is the glory of the flesh, and those who find pleasure in it are doubtless carnal.”
Notes: Rom. vii. 24. * 2 Cor. v. 6 — Pliil. i. 23.
You see, however, that meditation is spoken of as carnal, which is on the outward actions of Christ, only as contrasted with that which is on spiritual things ; not to disparage devotion to the first, but to lead the soul on with a still greater fervour to the second, so that the affections, and the whole being, may be immersed therein. But good, indeed, is meditation on the Life of Christ, by which a carnal life is destroyed, and the world despised and overcome ; by which also the mind is fortified, instructed in virtues, and receives an increase of power, as I have said in my Preface. Meditate, therefore, on the Life of Christ ; let this be your sole aim and occupation, your rest, your food, your pursuit. For from this you will not only obtain the blessings of which I have spoken ; not only will it be to you a preparation for contemplation upon the Heavenly Country and the Divine Majesty, but it will also be your joy and unfailing consolation. For those who ascend to higher flights of meditation ought ever and anon to turn to Christ’s Life. To seem for a moment to be able to rise beyond it without it, would be a mark of great pride. Thus, ever bear in mind, what has again and again been inculcated in the treatise on Contemplation, about the Sacred Humanity of Christ, which S. Bernard, who was a most profound contemplative, ever taught He evidently, from his sermons, embraced and extolled without measure devotion to the Life of our Lord.
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