Dwelling Place

St Bernard meditates on today’s gospel reading:

"I and the Father will come to him," that is, to the holy man, "and make our dwelling with him." …

No need to be surprised that the Lord Jesus should be pleased to dwell in this heaven, which he not only called into being by his word like the other creatures, but fought to acquire and died to redeem. And when his passion was over the longing of his heart found echo in the words: "This is my resting-place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it." Happy therefore is the one to whom he says: "Come my chosen one, and I shall set up my throne within you." Why are you sad now, my soul, why do you trouble me? Do you not think you will find within you a place for the Lord? Which of us indeed is suited for so much glory, qualified to welcome so majestic a being? Would that I were worthy to worship at his footstool! Who will grant me at least to walk in the footsteps of some holy soul whom he has chosen as his heritage? Would that he anointed my soul with the oil of his mercy, to extend it like a curtain of skin that expands when anointed, and I should be able to say: "I have run the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart." Then perhaps I should find within me not so much a great dining-hall where he might recline with his discipline, as a place where he might lay his head….

The soul must grow and expand, that it may be roomy enough for God. Its width is its love, if we accept what the Apostle says: "Widen your hearts in love." The soul, being a spirit, does not admit of material expansion, but grace confers gifts on it that nature is not equipped to bestow. Its growth and expansion must be understood in a spiritual sense; it is its virtue that increases, not its substance. Even its glory is increased. And finally it grows and advances toward "mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Eventually it becomes "a holy temple in the Lord." The capacity of any man's soul is judged by the amount of love he possesses; hence he who loves much is great, he who loves a little is small, he who has no love is nothing, as Paul said: "If I have not love, I am nothing."

(St Bernard, Sermon 27 on the Song of Songs)

Image: by an anonymous nun of the late 15th century.  The heart is a house; the aorta is a chimney.  Steps lead up to the door and inside the nun sits on Christ's knee, with God the Father embracing her and the Holy Spirit perching by her. Cf. the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-cabinet-of-curiosities-human-heart.html