People use the word “love” regularly. But what does it really mean to love someone or something? Does love change when it’s directed at the self? In what ways does love between humans differ from a loving relationship with God?
Similar questions inspired the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) to write “On Loving God,” a succinct but widely influential treatise on the role and power of love in fostering a spiritual life.
Doctor, Mystic, and Theologian
A portrait of San Bernardo, circa 1540–1545, by Juan Correa de Vivar. Oil on panel. Prado National Museum, Madrid. Public Domain
Bernard of Clairvaux was born into a noble family in Burgundy, France. At 22, he gave up plans to pursue a legal career, choosing to enter a Benedictine monastery at Citeaux, in southern France. Three years after his arrival, he was sent to Ville-sous-la-Ferté, also in France, where he founded and became abbot of Clairvaux Abbey. The Abbey belonged to the Cistercian monastic order.
Led partly by Bernard, the Cistercians sought to return to the strict observance of Saint Benedict’s original “Rule,” which emphasized voluntary poverty, manual labor, and simplicity. This attempt was a response to the growing wealth of other Benedictine orders in Europe, which the Cistercians saw as a dangerous deviation from their purported goals.
In 1174, the Catholic Church canonized Bernard, who was later named a Doctor of the Church for his significant contributions to theology. In line with his commitment to humility and simplicity, Bernard’s writings stressed the primacy of personal devotion and experiences of the divine over the intellectual speculations favored by his contemporaries, like the scholastic philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard.
To this end, Bernard often combined poetry and prose. According to Duncan Roberston, former Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of San Francisco, Bernard’s “use of language remains perhaps his most universal legacy.”
The Four Degrees of Love
Written during the height of the Cistercian monastic movement in the late 12th century, “On Loving God” sought to explain the experience of divine love and grace. Bernard opened the essay by telling readers the “twofold reason” for loving God: “Nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.” The following chapters explain these two reasons to intellectuals and ordinary people alike, though Bernard acknowledged that he had the latter especially in mind.
Although Bernard wrote his essay for Christians, its principles describe a spiritual orientation shared by all religious traditions concerned with the worship and emulation of a divine creator. According to the essay, this orientation proceeds through four degrees of love, which illustrate a person’s potential spiritual evolution.
Scenes from the life of Bernard of Clairvaux are depicted in a tile painting at the Church of Santa Maria de Cos, in Coz, Alcobaca, Portugal. GualdimG/CC BY-SA 4.0
Love of Self for Self’s Sake
Bernard recognized that every human is a physical being born from nature. As such, the first reality humans know is physical reality. This reality is fundamentally imperfect. In his words, it’s so “frail and weak that necessity compels [a person] to love [himself] first.” As physical beings, humans are prone to love themselves “first and selfishly.” In this case, “love” refers to the body’s desires. Basic physical needs like food, water, and intimacy limit people’s attention only to their body’s needs.In this first degree of love, people treat the body as an end in and of itself. They can’t avoid it because they’re bodily creatures. Yet they can avoid doing so excessively. To prevent bodily desires from getting out of hand, Bernard thought people need to focus only on what’s necessary. Realizing that however much food one has is enough is the first step to avoid gluttony. If humans don’t stave off unnecessary bodily urges, they’ll remain stuck in this first stage. Their spiritual potential will remain unfulfilled.
Love of God for Self’s Sake
Unlike animals, humans can consciously regulate their behavior. When bodily desires make one behave detrimentally towards himself and others, “then a command checks the flood, as if by a dyke: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’” For Bernard, this “law of life and conscience” is implanted in the soul by God. It helps people become temperate and thrive in their community. Temperate and righteous love “practises self-denial in order to minister to a brother’s necessity.”
"The Shepherd Sleeping With His Dog," 19th century, by Filippo Palizzi. Oil on canvas. Public Domain
Out of a shared understanding of what it means to coexist with other humans, people begin to consider others as worthy of help and service. Bernard gives the example of “food and raiment.” Recognizing another as a member of one’s community convinces one to give up anything unnecessary to whomever needs it instead. He will share food and clothing with his neighbors and learn to be “truly social.”
The second degree of love is still anchored in individuals’ desires for material status. People begin loving God only as they recognize that this divine law has afforded them material benefits. However, this second degree is still oriented more towards God than the first one. Bernard thought that if “we are to love our neighbours as we ought, we must have regard to God also.” If God is the source of love, as Bernard believed, loving our neighbors means partaking in that source, therefore coming into contact with the divine.
Love of God for God’s Sake
The communion between man and God can become even deeper when a person begins to love “God for His essential goodness, and not merely because of the benefits He has bestowed.” To embody this higher aspiration, Bernard thought one must give up concerns about his material condition and social position. It doesn’t matter how much food or money one can get from another’s goodwill. In the third degree, people express love for the creator’s supreme beauty and benevolence disinterestedly.Bernard believed this disinterested love would strengthen people’s ability to love fellow humans. People would now love others as divine creations and not merely as individuals who could benefit them.
"St. Bernard Preaches the Second Crusade" by Emile Signol. Public Domain
Bernard emphasized action as a crucial component of this third degree: Such love is “pure, since it is shown not in word nor tongue, but in deed and truth.” What one does towards another is far more significant than what one says.
As a man continues to love his fellow human beings, he does so as an act of appreciation towards the goodness of creation and its creator. Here, one finally loves “God on His own account, solely because He is God.”
Love of Self for God’s Sake
How “blessed is he who reaches the fourth degree of love, wherein one loves himself only in God!” Bernard thought this final degree rarely attainable during a person’s mortal life. If people do attain it, their “righteousness standeth like the strong mountains.” They’re blessed beyond comprehension, for even an instant in that state is otherworldly.If a mortal should be so lucky to feel this “heavenly joy for a rapturous moment,” he’d later envy that short-lived happiness. He’d recognize that his life is disturbed by “the malice of daily trifles” and “the needs of the flesh,” which threaten to stunt his spiritual fulfillment. He’d also realize that heavenly joy belongs to a world beyond matter. Only the soul can attain this fourth degree of love permanently. Once free from the body, the soul can return to what Bernard called its “perfect, peaceful, lovely” divine source.
The Search for Love
Bernard’s step-by-step description of the four degrees of love may give readers the wrong impression that spiritual development is as easy as following a manual. Bernard simply meant this text as a digestible guide for people to better understand themselves, their relationships to each other, and their connection to the divine. He offered principles to comprehend experience, so readers could ensure their deeds matched their aspirations.His implicit invitation was to live out those principles. At no point does he suggest that reading is sufficient to reach insight into love. The journey towards heavenly joy is not simple. It requires struggles, temperance, and perseverance, which make it all the more valuable.
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