Putting To Death

Tu quoque si propriam deseras voluntatem, si corporis voluptatibus perfecte renunties, si carnem tuam crucifigas cum vitiis et concupiscentiis, sed et mortifices membra tua, quae sunt super terram: probabis te Pauli imitatorem, qui non facias animam tuam pretiosiorem te ipso; probabis et Christi discipulum, etiam illam perdendo salubriter. Et quidem prudentius eam perdis ut custodias, quam custodis ut perdas. Nam qui voluerit animam suam salvam facere, perdet eam. Quid hic vos dicitis, observatores ciborum, morum neglectores? Hippocrates et sequaces eius docent animas salvas facere in hoc mundo; Christus et eius discipuli, perdere. Quemnam vos e duobus sequi magistrum eligitis? At manifestum se facit qui sic disputat: hoc oculis, hoc capiti, et illud pectori vel stomacho nocet. Profecto unusquisque quod a suo magistro didicit, hoc in medium profert. Num in Evangelio legisti has differentias, aut in prophetis, aut in litteris apostolorum? Caro et sanguis pro certo revelavit tibi hanc sapientiam, non spiritus Patris; est enim carnis haec sapientia. Sed audi quid de ipsa nostri medici sentiant. Sapientia, inquiunt, carnis mors est; item: Sapientia carnis inimica est Deo. Num Hippocratis seu Galeni sententiam, aut certe de schola Epicuri debui proponere vobis? Christi sum discipulus; Christi discipulis loquor: ego si peregrinum dogma induxero, ipse peccavi. Epicurus atque Hippocrates corporis alter voluptatem, alter bonam habitudinem praefert; meus Magister utriusque rei contemptum praedicat. Animae in corpore vitam, quam summo studio iste unde sustentet, ille unde et delectet, inquirit atque inquirere docet, Salvator monet et perdere. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, In Cantica Canticorum, Sermo XXX. Qualiter populus fidelium seu animae electorum per vineas significantur ,quarum Ecclesia custos dicitur; et de prudentia carnis, quae est mors. Source: Migne PL 183.938d-939b

You too, if you abandon your own will, if you perfectly renounce the pleasures of the body, if you crucify your flesh with its passions and desires, and if you 'put to death your members which are on the earth,' 1 you will prove yourself to be an imitator of Paul, because you will not account your life as more precious than yourself. You will prove yourself a disciple of Christ by the loss that saves. It is wiser to lose it in order to save it, than by guarding it to lose it. 'For he who wants to save his life, will lose it.' 2 What do you say to this who are so particular about food and careless about conduct? Hippocrates and his followers teach us to save our lives in this world, Christ and his disciples teach us to lose them. Which of the two do you choose to follow as master? He clearly shows who he does who complains, 'This hurts my eyes, and this my head, and this my chest and my stomach.' Without doubt each of us speaks in the manner of the master he has learned from. Did you read of these distinctions in the Gospel, or in the Prophets, or in the letters of the Apostles? No, it was flesh and blood that revealed this wisdom to you, not the Spirit of the Father, 3 for it is the wisdom of the flesh. But hear what our physicians think of that. 'The wisdom of the flesh,' they say, 'is death;' and 'the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy of God.' 4 Should I propose to you the teaching of Hippocrates or Galen, or even of the school of Epicurus? I am a disciple of Christ, I am speaking to disciples of Christ, if I should introduce strange doctrines here, I sin. Epicurus thought the body's sensual pleasure was best, Hippocrates good health, but my Master preaches contempt for both. What with all zeal each one teaches, how to maintain the body's life or to serve its pleasures, the Savior admonishes us to lose. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Commentary On The Song of Songs, from Sermon 30, How the faithful people or the souls of the elect are signified by the vineyards, of which the Church is the guard, and on the wisdom of the flesh which is death 1 Colos 3.5 2 Mt 16.25 3 Mt 16.17 4 Rom 8.6-7