Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux was born in 1091 in France.
At the age of 20, he became a monk, a cistercian, and he was gifted.
Gifted in many ways, gifted in such a way that he was able to reform the monastery that he entered, draw many vocations to that monastery, to that life of austerity, to that life of penance, to that life of prayer, and to spread that reform through Europe.
He himself arrived at holiness, and he was able to lead others to holiness.
He became renowned, although that life that he embraced, the cistercian life, the contemplative life, was very hidden.
He could not hide the talents that God had given him. Very unique talents, very special talents, and his life became very public.
He became renowned in all of Europe for his preaching, not just on the spiritual life, amazing teachings on the spiritual life, on the contemplative life, but also his involvement in the life of the Church.
For example, he was one of the most vehement preachers of the Second Crusade, gave himself to that effort, supported the Church in that effort.
He was a counselor of men of the Church, of popes. He was a peacemaker, sent on many missions by the pope for the good of the Church, for the good of Europe, for the good of the world.
But his magnetic attraction was always to God and to prayer. That's what made him so effective, because he would always return to that font from which his gifts came, God and Our Lady, the Mediatrix, between us and God, between us and Our Lord, between us and Jesus.
In fact, this is what characterized him, his devotion to Our Lady.
We in the first reading heard of wisdom, mother-like, she will meet him, and God gave him that special gift of devotion to Our Lady, and Our Lady, mother-like, met him, found him, and gave him that great wisdom.
He died in 1153, and was proclaimed a doctor of the Church in 1830.
So having seen his life, now focusing on his Marian devotion, there's something very ironic about St. Bernard, actually.
To him, we attribute that Mariological axiom, we can say.
In Latin, it goes, De Maria nunquam satis, which in English means, you can never say enough about Mary. That's attributed to him.
I know that might make us think, well, he probably exaggerated, you know, with a premise like that, you can't ever say enough about Our Lady, he probably said too much.
But in reality, the ironic thing is that he didn't say enough. He stopped short of recognizing all the glory that God had given to Mary, because he, like some other, even saints of his time, didn't recognize the Immaculate Conception.
At that time, it was not yet dogmatically defined. At that time, theologians were still debating, and it was a debate really about subtle and fine points. It was a debate really about whether Our Lady was sinless and full of grace at the first moment of her existence, or only at the second moment.
So nobody made of Our Lady a sinner.
It was just a question of, okay, at which moment was she sanctified? First moment, conception, or at the second moment, right after conception?
And St. Bernard just couldn't explain how you could reconcile Immaculate Conception with the Redemption. He thought it would be too much to admit the Immaculate Conception, so he stopped short. And in hindsight, we realize he didn't say enough.
On the one hand, De Maria Nunc Cum Satis, you can't say enough about Our Lady, but yet he stopped short.
And through no fault of his own, he was a saint, at that moment he didn't have the light of the Magisterium to guide him, that came only later, we have that grace, at that moment he didn't.
But it does show us that even the saints, a number of saints who truly loved Our Lady, were in error about her holiness, but when the saints are in error about Our Lady's holiness, it's never through excess, it's simply through defect.
The saints, though they want to say all that there is to be said about Our Lady, are simply unable to do so. It's impossible to exaggerate when you do real and true theology, when you're truly guided by Scripture and tradition and the Magisterium.
Some saints simply didn't realize the greatness of the great things the Almighty had done for her. When there's such great things, it's difficult to grasp them. Even if you want to, even if you're a doctor of the Church, not all of them grasp that, because again, theology develops with time, our understanding of Revelation develops with time.
But again, I know of no saint that ever actually managed to exaggerate, but I know of many who managed to fall short of the greatness of the great things that God has done for Mary.
Just to illustrate that further, because it's an amazing thought, I think, and at the Second Vatican Council, so the Second Vatican Council put together, as far as councils go, the longest, most complete teaching on Our Lady, a very lengthy section of Lumen Gentium is about Our Lady, so to put that document together required a lot of discussions of the council fathers and a lot of considerations and a lot of back and forth.
At this council, a Dominican priest, who was the head of the whole order, who was very actively involved and very actively involved in the debates, pointed out exactly what we're saying. Plenty of saints fell short of capturing Our Lady's glory, none of them exaggerated, so to those who were very concerned about, let's not say too much about Our Lady, he responded, when has a Catholic theologian or preacher ever, in the past or present, taught that Mary is equal to her son? Who's ever said that? Do you know of a single theologian, do you know of a single saint, do you know of a single doctor of the Church who's ever done that? Can one reasonably fear that in the future, Catholic theologians and preachers will have the temerity to teach something so absurd? Why therefore should one advise them to cast off such an excess when they are already far from it?
Come on, tell Saint Bernard, don't exaggerate, I mean he was hesitant to admit the Immaculate Conception because his theology was thorough, it was cautious, he wanted to remain in the truth, couldn't explain the Immaculate Conception, thought it would be too much, so he stopped short. And so with many other saints, guided by wisdom, though imperfectly because their minds are human, they never exaggerate because they want to stay in the truth, they don't want to rashly just state whatever comes to their mind.
And Pope Paul VI, Saint Paul VI right after the Second Vatican Council, beatifying Saint Maximilian Kolbe, if you think anybody would have exaggerated, Maximilian Kolbe, wow, that guy, really exaggerated, right, if you read the life and the writings of Saint Maximilian, and yet about him, Saint Paul VI wrote, this veneration with its rites and practices will never fully achieve the level it merits. Think of Saint Maximilian, you think he's exaggerating, nope, he, no, no, even his veneration for Our Lady never really achieves the level that Our Lady merits.
We cannot ever say, we really cannot ever say enough or too much about Mary because the closer we place her to God, it's not, let me backtrack, we don't place Our Lady close to God, the more we recognize how close God has placed her to Himself, the closer we are to truth and not to excess, the more we bridge that gap between Mary and God, the more we recognize how close God has put her to Himself, the more we come close to the truth and not to excess.
And because if we consecrate ourselves to Our Lady, if we love Our Lady, the closer we put her to God, the closer we come to God because she takes us with her. She never takes us away from God. The closer we put her to God, the more she takes us with her.
And she is as close as a creature can possibly come to God. You want to come close to God? Get close to Mary.
If we seek the truth, if we do true Catholic theology, guided by Scripture, guided by tradition, guided by the magisterium and the grace of God, we will realize that she is as close as you can possibly get to God because truly God has done great things for her and holy is His name.
And the more we realize the greatness of those things He has done, the more we will hallow His name, the author of all those great things.
Saint Bernard, pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.