The Incarnation And The Trinity

Huic enim limo terreno vim vitalem miscuit, ut in arboribus, unde surgit venustas in foliis, in floribus pulchritudo, sapor in fructibus et medicina. Nec hoc contentus, adjecit etiam vim sensibilem limo nostro, ut in pecoribus, quae non solum vitam habeant, sed et sentiant quinquepertita sensificatione vigentes. Addidit adhuc honorare limum nostrum, et ei vim rationalem immisit, ut in hominibus, qui non solum vivunt, sentiunt, sed et discernunt inter commodum et incommodum, inter bonum et malum, inter verum et falsum. Voluit quoque infirmiora nostra abundantiori gloria sublimare, et contraxit se Majestas: ut quod melius habebat, videlicet seipsum, limo nostro conjungeret, et in persona una sibi invicem unirentur Deus et limus, majestas et infirmitas, tanta vilitas et sublimitas tanta. Nihil enim Deo sublimius, nil vilius limo: et tamen tanta dignatio e Deus descendit in limum,  tantaque dignitate limus ascendit in Deum, ut quidquid in eo Deus fecit, limus fecisse credatur; quidquid limus pertulit, Deus in illo pertulisse dicatur tam ineffabili quam incomprehensibili sacramento. Et attende, quia sicut in illa singulari divinitate trinitas est in personis, unitas in substantia; sic in ista speciali commistione trinitas est in substantiis, in persona unitas: et sicut ibi personae non scindunt unitatem, unitas non minuit Trinitatem; ita et hic persona non confundit substantias, nec substantiae ipsae personae dissipant unitatem. Summa illa Trinitas hanc nobis exhibuit trinitatem, opus mirabile, opus singulare inter omnia, et super omnia opera sua! Verbum enim, et anima, et caro in unam convenere personam; et haec tria unum, 0099A et hoc unum tria, non confusione substantiae, sed unitate personae. Haec est prima et superexcellens mistura; et haec prima inter tres. Adverte homo quia limus es, et non sis superbus; quia Deo conjunctus es, et non sis ingratus. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, In Vigilia Nativitatis Domini, Sermo III Source: Migne PL 183.98b-99a

For He even mixed the vital power with terrestrial mud, as with plants, from whence the beauty of leaves rises and the fairness of flowers and the sweet aromas of fruits and medicines. But do not be content with just that. Add the sensible power to our mud, as in animals, that not only have life but are empowered with the awareness of sensation. And then add honour to our mud with the mixing of the rational power in it, as in men, who not only live and sense but discern between what is fitting and unfitting, and good and evil, and true and false. Then He wished to make our infirmity yet more glorious, and He narrowed his majesty, for what was better that He had joined Himself to our mud, and in one person was unified to both God and mud, as was majesty to infirmity, and such great vileness to such great sublimity. Nothing is more sublime than God, nothing so vile as mud, and yet such dignity from God descended into mud, and mud with such dignity ascended to God, so that whatever God did mud was thought to do, and whatever mud bore God was said to bear, a most ineffable and incomprehensible mystery. And attend, because as there is one divinity in the Trinity of the persons, and there is unity in substance, so in this special mixing there is a trinity in substance, and a unity in person. So in the former the persons and are not separated in unity and unity does not diminish the Trinity, and in the latter the person does not confuse the substances, nor do the substances disturb the unity of that person. That high Trinity exhibits to us this later trinity, a wonderous work, a singular work among all things, and above all things His. For the Word and the soul and the flesh come together in one person, and these three are one, and this one is three, not to the confusion of the substances, and with the unity of the person. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Year, On The vigil of The Nativity of the Lord, from the Third Sermon