Endurance And Refreshment

Misereor super turbam, quia jam triduo sustinent me, nec habent quod manducent. Evangelium, fratres, ob hoc scriptum est, ut legatur; nec ob aliud legitur, quam ut rationabilem consolationem vel desolationem exinde capiamus. Est enim saecularibus consolatio vana de terrenarum affluentia rerum, vana nihilominus de earum penuria desolatio. At Evangelium, speculum veritatis, nemini blanditur, nullum seducit. Talem in eo se quisque reperiet, qualis fuerit: ut nec ibi timore trepidet, ubi non est timor; nec laetetur cum male fecerit. Sed quid dicit Scriptura? Si quis auditor est verbi, et non factor, hic comparabitur viro consideranti vultum nativitatis suae in speculo. Consideravit enim se, et abiit, et statim oblitus est qualis fuerit. Nos autem, fratres, non sic, obsecro, non sic; sed consideremus nosmetipsos in ipsa, quam audivimus, sacri Evangelii lectione, ut proficiamus ex ea, et corrigamus secundum eam, si qua in nobis deprehendamus corrigenda. Propter hoc enim optat Propheta dirigi vias suas, ad custodiendas justificationes Domini: Tunc, inquiens, non confundar, cum perspexero in omnibus mandatis tuis. Et ego quidem non confundor, sed glorior pro vobis, fratres mei, quoniam Salvatorem in deserto secuti, securi existis ad eum extra castra; sed vereor ne quis forte in triduana exspectatione pusillanimis inveniatur, et in Aegyptum saeculi hujus nequam vel corde, vel etiam et corpore revertatur. Merito proinde clamat divina Scriptura et dicit: Exspecta Dominum, viriliter age, et confortetur cor tuum, et sustine Dominum. Sed quandiu necesse est sustinere? Prorsus donec misereatur tui. Quaeris quando? Misereor, inquit, super turbam, quia jam triduo sustinent me. Viam enim trium dierum eas necesse est in deserto, si gratum Deo tuo offerre volueris sacrificium; et triduo sustineas Salvatorem, si miraculi panibus desideras satiari. Prima est dies timoris; dies, inquam, declarans et illuminans tenebras tuas, interiores scilicet, et horrendum gehennae supplicium demonstrans, in quo sunt tenebrae exteriores. Hujuscemodi siquidem cogitatio, sicut ipsi nostis, nostrae solet exercere primordia conversionis. Secunda est pietatis dies, qua respiramus in luce miserationum Dei. Tertia dies est rationis, in qua veritas innotescit, ut tanquam ex debito quodam naturae sine aliqua contradictione Creatori subjecta sit creatura, servus serviat Redemptori. Exhinc jubemur jam discumbere, ut charitas ordinetur in nobis; exhinc aperit Dominus manum suam, et implet omne animal benedictione. Verum quoniam apostolis dicitur: Facite homines discumbere; quorum nos, licet ad confusionem nostram, habetis vicarios qualescunque, discumbere vos admonemus, fratres charissimi, ut refecti pane benedictionis subsistere possitis in via; ne forte misera necessitate compulsi descendatis et vos in Aegyptum, et incipiant vobis illudere, qui necdum vobis cum in deserto secuti sunt Salvatorem. Miseri sane et ipsi, qui non exiere cum exeuntibus; sed plane miserabiliores omnibus hominibus, qui profecti quidem cum aliis, sed non cum aliis sunt refecti. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, Dominica VI Post Pentecosten, Sermo I, De evangelica lectione, ubi turba triduo sustinens Dominum septem panibus reficitur Source: Migne PL 183.337a-338b

'I have pity for the crowd, because they have been with me three days, and they do not have anything to eat.' 1 Let the Gospel be read, brothers, because of what is written, and let it not be read but that we might seize on reasonable consolation or desolation. For among worldly folk there is vain consolation in an abundance of worldly things, and among not a few a vain desolation because of the lack of them. But the Gospel, the mirror of truth, charms no one, nor does it seduce anyone. What is in it anyone may find as it is, so that there no one should fear where there is no fear, 2 nor rejoice when evil is done. But what does Scripture say? If someone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man considering his natural face in a mirror. For he considers himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets how he was. 3 Let us not be like that, brothers, let us not, I beg, but let us consider ourselves in this mirror, in what we have heard in the reading of the holy Gospel, that we might benefit from it, and correct ourselves according to it, if we grasp something is in us that is in need of correction. Because of which the prophet desired that his ways be directed to the guarding of the justifications of the Lord, saying, 'Then I shall not be confounded when I look into all your commandments.' 4 And I am not confounded, but I glory in you, my brothers, because having followed the Saviour into the desert, you have confidently gone out to follow him outside the camp. 5 But I do fear lest perhaps someone finds himself weak of soul during the three days, and he turns his heart or even his body to the wicked Egypt of this world. Whence rightly Holy Scripture cries out and says: 'Hope in the Lord, act bravely, and strengthen your heart, and bear with the Lord.' 6 But how long must we endure? Certainly until He has pity on us. You ask when? 'I have pity for the crowd, for they have been with me for three days.' On the way of three days one must be in the desert, if you wish to offer a sacrifice of thanks to God, and for three days to bear with the Saviour, if you wish to be filled with the miraculous bread. First is the day of fear, a day, I say that declares and illuminates your darkness, obviously of the interior, and reveals the horrid punishments of hell, in which there is the exterior darkness. The thought of this, as you know, is accustomed to exercise us in our first conversation. The second day is of piety, in which we breathe the mercy of God in the light. The third day is of reason, in which the truth becomes known, that as a debt of nature, without any dispute, the creature is subject to the Creator, and the servant attends the Redeemer. Whence we are commanded to sit, that love might be ordered among us, for then the Lord opens his hand, and fills every animal with a blessing. 7 Truly He said to the Apostles, 'Make the men sit,' and we are of them, and possibly to our confusion you have neighbours, which we admonish you to make sit, dear brothers, that refreshed with the bread of blessing you are able to endure on the way, lest perhaps some wretched necessity drives even you back into Egypt, and they begin to mock you, who did not follow the Saviour into the desert with you. Certainly they are  wretched who did not go out with those who did go out, but more wretched are they among all men who have advanced with others, but have not been refreshed with others. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Year, The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, from Sermon One, On The Reading from the Gospel when the crowd had been with the Lord for three days and He refreshed them with seven loaves. 1 Mk 8.2 2 Ps 13.5, 52.5 3 Jam 1.23-24 4 Ps 118.5-6 5 Heb 13.12 6 Ps 26.14 7 Ps 144.16