Freeing From The Snare

Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium... Ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium. Ergone bestiae sumus nos? Bestiae prorsus. Homo enim cum in honore esset, non intellexit: comparatus est jumentis insipientibus, et similis factus est illis. Bestiae profecto sunt homines, oves errantes non habentes pastorem. Quid superbis, o homo? quid te sciolum jactas? Vide quia bestia factus es, cui venandae laquei praeparantur. Sed qui sunt venatores isti? Venatores utique pessimi et nequissimi, callidissimi et crudelissimi. Venatores, qui cornu non sonant, ut non audiantur, sed sagittant in occultis immaculatum. Ipsi rectores sunt tenebrarum harum, astutissimi nequitia et versutia diabolicae fraudis: ita ut sicut est ante venatorem bestia, sic ad eorum comparationem sit quilibet astutissimus hominum, praeter eos duntaxat, qui cum Apostolo non ignorant cogitationes eorum, quibus in Dei sapientia datum est fraudes deprehendere malignorum. Obsecro vos, novellae plantationes Dei, vos qui nondum exercitatos habetis sensus ad discretionem boni et mali, nolite sequi cordis vestri judicium, nolite abundare in sensu vestro; ne vos, tanquam rudes adhuc, versutus ille venator decipiat. Nam silvestribus illis et omnino bestialibus bestiis, saeculares homines loquor, apertos satis expandit laqueos, utpote quos facile capiendos esse non dubitat. Vobis autem, qui tanquam prudentiores cervi serpentes necatis, et desideratis ad fontem vivum, subtiliores occultat laqueos, et callidiora fraudis suae argumenta conquirit. Unde, obsecro vos, humiliamini sub potenti manu Dei pastoris vestri, et acquiescite eorum consiliis, qui melius norunt venatoris illius versutias, edocti diuturno longi temporis exercitio, et crebris experimentis, tam in se, quam in multis. Sed ecce quia jam venatores et bestias novimus; quisnam sit laqueus iste quaerendum est. Nolo ego adinvenire ex me, nec dubium aliquid tradere vobis. Ostendat nobis Apostolus laqueum istum: ipse enim venatorum illorum non ignorat cogitationes. Dic nobis, inquam, beate Paule, quis sit laqueus iste diaboli, a quo se liberatam fidelis anima congratulatur. Qui volunt, inquit, divites fieri in hoc saeculo, incidunt in tentationes, et in laqueum diaboli. Ergone laqueus diaboli, divitiae sunt hujus saeculi? Heu quam paucos invenimus, qui ab hoc laqueo liberari exsultent! quam multos, qui dolent quod parum sibi videntur irretiti; et adhuc quantum possunt, ipsi se involvere et intricare laborant! Vos qui reliquistis omnia, et secuti estis non habentem ubi caput suum reclinaret, Filium hominis, exsultate, et dicite: Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium. Confitemini illi toto corde, tota anima, tota virtute, et ex ipsis medullis cordis gratias ei agite, dicentes: Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, In Psalmum XC, Sermo III, De versu tertio, Deus meus, sperabo in eum. Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium, et a verbo aspero Source: Migne PL 183.190c-191c

Because He freed me for the snare of the hunters... 1 He freed me from the snare of the hunters. Are we then beasts? Indeed we are. 'When a man is in honour, he does not understand, he is like the mindless beasts and he has been made like them.' 2 Truly men are beasts, wandering sheep who do not have a shepherd. 3 Why so proud, O man? Why vaunt your knowledge? See that you are made a beast, for whom the hunting trap has been prepared. But who are these hunters? Hunters are the worst, and the most wicked, the most cunning and the most cruel. Hunters who do not blow a horn, and that so that they are not heard, but from hidden places they shoot shafts at the immaculate. 4 They are the rulers of this darkness, 5 most clever in evil and most capable in the deceits of the devil. Thus as there are beasts before the hunter, they may be compared to very cunning men, if we may except those who, at least, with the Apostle, are not ignorant of their plots, 6 who by the wisdom of God that has been given them grasp the deceits of the wicked. I beseech you, new plantings of God, you who have not yet exerted yourself in the understanding of the discretion of good and evil, do not follow the judgements of your hearts, do not abound in your own minds, lest you, as creatures who are yet untrained, are seized by the cunning hunter. For in those woods with the feral beasts, I speak of worldly men, he openly sets down his traps, for they are undoubtedly easily caught, but for you, who are as the watchful stag which stamps on the serpent, desiring the fount of living waters, he hides more subtle traps, and he overthrows with the delusions of his clever arguments. Whence I beg you, be humble beneath the powerful hand of God your shepherd, and cleave to the council of those who better know the tricks of the hunter, being taught by the long time of daily exertions, and frequent trials, more in them than in the many. Now that you know the hunters and the beasts, it must be asked what the trap is. I do not wish to bring this forth from myself, nor do I doubt I have something to give you. Let Paul the Apostle reveal this trap, for he was not ignorant of the plots of the hunters. Say to us, Paul, what is this trap of the devil, from which the faithful soul that is freed will give thanks. He says: 'He who wishes to be rich in this world, he falls into temptations, and into the trap of the devil.' 7 Is this, then, not the trap of the devil, the wealth of this world? Alas, how few do we find who would exult to be liberated from this snare. How many who grieve to see themselves entangled only a little there. And then how many there are who strive to catch and fix themselves there. You who have left everything, and having followed have no place to rest your head, 8 praise the Son of Man and say 'Because He freed me from the snare of the hunters.' Confess to Him with your whole heart and with all your soul and all your strength, 9 and from the depths of your heart give thanks to Him, saying, 'Because He freed me from the snare of the hunters.' Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Year, On Psalm 90, from The Third Sermon, On the third verse, 'My God, I shall hope in him, because He frees me from the trap of the hunter and the bitter word...' 1 Ps 90.3 2 Ps 48.13 3 Mk 6.34 4 Ps 10.4 5 Ephes 6.12 6 2 Cor 2.11 7 Tim 6.9 8 Lk 9.58 9 Mk 12.30, Deut 6.4-7