Faith And Love

Mors fidei est separatio charitatis. Credis in Christum? fac Christi opera, ut vivat fides tua. Fidem tuam dilectio animet, probet actio. Non incurvet terrenum opus, quem fides coelestium erigit. Qui te dicis in Christo manere, debes, sicut ipse ambulavit, et tu ambulare. Quod si propriam gloriam quaeris, florenti invides, absenti detrahis, reponis laedenti te: hoc Christus non fecit. Confiteris te nosse Deum, factis autem negas. Non recte plane, sed impie linguam Christo, animam dedisti diabolo. Audi ergo quid dicat: Homo iste labiis me honorat, cor autem ejus longe est a me. Non es profecto rectus, qui tam non recte dividis. Non potes attollere caput pressum diaboli jugo. Non te subrigere praevales, cui dominatur iniquitas. Iniquitates tuae supergressae sunt caput tuum, et sicut onus grave gravatae sunt super te. Iniquitas denique sedet super talentum plumbi. Vides quod non faciat hominem rectum fides etiam recta, quae non operatur ex dilectione. At qui sine dilectione est, non habet unde diligat sponsam. Sed nec opera, quamvis recta, rectum cor efficere sufficiunt sine fide. Quis enim rectum dicat hominem non placentem Deo? Sine fide autem impossibile est placere Deo. Qui non placet Deo, non potest illi placere Deus. Nam cui placet Deus, Deo displicere non potest. Porro cui non placet Deus, nec sponsa ejus. Quomodo ergo rectus, qui nec Deum diligit, nec Ecclesiam Dei, cui dicitur: Recti diligunt te? Si ergo nec fides sine operibus, nec opera sine fide sufficiunt ad animi rectitudinem; nos qui in Christum credimus, fratres, rectas studeamus facere vias nostras et studia nostra. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, In Cantica Canticorum, Sermo XXIV, Agit praecipue contra detestabile vitium detractionis; et qua in re rectitudo hominis potissimum consistat. Source: Migne PL 183.898b-899a

The death of faith is the loss of love. You believe in Christ? Do the works of Christ so that your faith will live. Love will give life to your faith, deeds will prove it. Let no worldly work drag down what faith has lifted up to the heavens. If you say you abide in Christ, you should walk as He walked. But if you seek your own glory, envying those who are successful, speaking ill of those who are absent, revenging yourself on those who hurt you, Christ did not do this. You confess that you know God, but with your deeds you reject Him. There is obviously nothing right, but wicked, in having your voice for Christ when your soul is given to the devil. Hear, then, what He says: 'That man honors me with his lips, but his heart is far from me.' 1 You are certainly not right who make a wicked division. You cannot lift up a head that is pressed down by the yoke of the devil. You cannot lift up what is ruled by wickedness. Your iniquities have risen up over your head and like the weight of a burden they are upon you. 2 And: 'Iniquity sits upon a talent of lead.' 3 Do you see, then, that correct faith will not make a man righteous if love does not fashion it? He who lacks love has no way to love the bride. But no deed, however righteous, is enough to make the heart righteous without faith. Who would call that man righteous who is not pleasing to God? But without faith it is impossible to please God. 4 And he who is not pleasing to God, God cannot please. For if God is pleasing to a man, that man cannot be displeasing to God. And then if God does not please a man, nor does His spouse. Who, then, is righteous who neither loves God nor the Church of God, to whom it is said, 'The righteous love you'? 5 If therefore, neither faith without works, nor works without faith, are enough for righteousness of soul, we who believe in Christ, brothers, must strive to make our ways and zeal right. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Commentary On The Song of Songs, from Sermon 24, On The Detestible Vice Of Detraction And In What The Righteousness Of Man Really Consists 1 Isaiah 29.13 2 Ps 37.5 3 Zach 5.7 4 Heb 11.6 5 Song 1.3