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Office Of Readings | Week 3, Wednesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Bernard On The Song Of Songs | Where Sin Abounded, Grace Superabounded
‘Where sin abounded grace has overflowed.’
In this reading concerning The Song of Songs, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux explores the relationship between human weakness and the mercy of Christ. His language is personal and contemplative, yet it expresses a clear theological conviction: the wounds of Christ are the place where fear, guilt, and insecurity are overcome.
Bernard begins by asking where a fragile and sinful person can find stability. His answer is direct: in the wounds of the Saviour. These wounds are not only signs of suffering but sources of refuge and healing. Against the pressures of the world, the weakness of the flesh, and the temptations of evil, Bernard sees Christ’s wounded body as firm ground. Even when conscience is troubled by serious sin, the memory of Christ’s sacrifice restores peace.
Bernard then addresses the despair that claims sin is beyond forgiveness. Bernard rejects this as a misunderstanding of what it means to belong to Christ. A Christian is a member of Christ’s body and therefore shares in Christ’s merits. What belongs to the head belongs, in some measure, to the members. Since Christ’s heart is rich in mercy, the believer can draw from it without fear of depletion.
Bernard develops this point through vivid imagery. The wounds in Christ’s hands, feet, and side are described as openings through which grace flows. Using biblical language, he speaks of tasting ‘honey from the rock and oil from the hardest stone’, meaning the sweetness and strength of God’s mercy found even in suffering. These wounds are not closed marks of pain but open signs of God’s goodwill.
Bernard then reflects on Christ’s inner life. The piercing of Christ’s body reveals the intentions of Christ’s heart. Through the wounds, the believer can see that God was at work in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Christ’s suffering is not distant or mechanical; it is filled with compassion, because he has entered fully into human weakness.
The theological centre of the reading is in Bernard’s understanding of merit. He does not deny the reality of sin, but he places it within a larger reality: the abundance of God’s mercy. A person’s true worth before God does not rest on personal achievement but on God’s compassion. Because Christ is righteous and merciful, and because the believer belongs to him, that righteousness becomes the believer’s own.
The reading ends with Bernard turning praise away from himself and towards God. He will not sing of his own righteousness, but of God’s justice and mercy revealed in Christ. In this way, the reading returns to its starting point: confidence, peace, and hope are found not in the self, but in the wounded and merciful Lord.
A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Bernard On The Song Of Songs | Where Sin Abounded, Grace Superabounded
Where can the weak find a place of firm security and peace, except in the wounds of the Saviour? Indeed, the more secure is my place there the more he can do to help me. The world rages, the flesh is heavy, and the devil lays his snares, but I do not fall, for my feet are planted on firm rock. I may have sinned gravely. My conscience would be distressed, but it would not be in turmoil, for I would recall the wounds of the Lord: he was wounded for our iniquities. What sin is there so deadly that it cannot be pardoned by the death of Christ? And so if I bear in mind this strong, effective remedy, I can never again be terrified by the malignancy of sin.
Surely the man who said: My sin is too great to merit pardon, was wrong. He was speaking as though he were not a member of Christ and had no share in his merits, so that he could claim them as his own, as a member of the body can claim what belongs to the head. As for me, what can I appropriate that I lack from the heart of the Lord who abounds in mercy? They pierced his hands and feet and opened his side with a spear. Through the openings of these wounds I may drink honey from the rock and oil from the hardest stone: that is, I may taste and see that the Lord is sweet.
He was thinking thoughts of peace, and I did not know it, for who knows the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor? But the piercing nail has become a key to unlock the door, that I may see the good will of the Lord. And what can I see as I look through the hole? Both the nail and the wound cry out that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The sword pierced his soul and came close to his heart, so that he might be able to feel compassion for me in my weaknesses.
Through these sacred wounds we can see the secret of his heart, the great mystery of love, the sincerity of his mercy with which he visited us from on high.
Where have your love, your mercy, your compassion shone out more luminously that in your wounds, sweet, gentle Lord of mercy? More mercy than this no one has than that he lay down his life for those who are doomed to death.
My merit comes from his mercy; for I do not lack merit so long as he does not lack pity. And if the Lord’s mercies are many, then I am rich in merits. For even if I am aware of many sins, what does it matter? Where sin abounded grace has overflowed. And if the Lord’s mercies are from all ages for ever, I too will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. Will I not sing of my own righteousness? No, Lord, I shall be mindful only of your justice. Yet that too is my own; for God has made you my righteousness.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ,
in your wounded body
you have made a refuge for the weak
and a healing for the broken.
When our conscience is troubled,
bring us back to the memory of your mercy.
When we fear our sins are too great,
remind us of the love
that led you to lay down your life.
Open to us the secret of your heart,
that we may see your compassion
and trust in your forgiveness.
Let your grace be stronger than our failings
and your mercy greater than our fear.
May we never rely on ourselves,
but always rest in what you have done for us,
who live and reign for ever.
Amen
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Wounds of the Saviour | The injuries Christ received in his passion and crucifixion
Mercy | God’s compassionate forgiveness and care
Conscience | The inner awareness of right and wrong
Merit | What counts before God in judgement
Member of Christ | One who belongs to Christ as part of his body, the Church
Reconciliation | The restoration of the relationship between God and humanity
Grace | God’s free and active help given to sinners
Compassion | Christ’s sharing in human suffering
Righteousness | Right standing before God
Justice of God | God’s faithful and saving action
Body of Christ | The Church united to Christ
Song of Songs | A book of Scripture interpreted here as describing the love between Christ and the soul
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, of the great Cappadocian Fathers, offers a profound meditation on the beatific vision—the promise that the pure in heart shall see God. His homily explores not only the depth of this promise but the existential and theological tension between divine transcendence and human limitation. As a mystic and theologian, Gregory challenges us to move beyond despair at our weaknesses and embrace the hope made possible by grace [ … ]
We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. 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When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. 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