Bishop Erik Varden delivers his second reflection at the Spiritual Exercises in the Vatican for Pope Leo XIV, Cardinals residing in Rome, and heads of Dicasteries, focusing on the theme: “Bernard, the Idealist.” Here is a summary of his reflection.
By Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO
What sort of man was St Bernard? Where did he come from? He towers over the twelfth-century Cistercian movement: such were his charisma and industriousness.
Many people, including some who should know better, suppose he got the order going. He did not, of course; though he did make a splash when he turned up in 1113, aged 23, with a band of thirty companions.
The monastery he joined, Cîteaux, was a project as much of innovation as of reform. The founders, who set it up in 1098, called their house novum monasterium. They were doing something new, not primarily reacting against anything, which is just as well, since projects of reaction sooner or later run into the sand.
On the face of it, the Cistercian project was conservative. Yet its protagonists introduced novelties. This dialectic was fruitful.
Bernard’s confidence in his own judgement could make him flexible in the observance of conventional procedures he otherwise claimed to uphold. His view of the Church’s needs drove him sometimes to adopt rigid positions that involved fierce partisanship.
But he was no hypocrite.
He was a genuinely humble man, fully given to God, capable of tender kindness, a firm friend—indeed, able to befriend former enemies—and a compelling witness to God’s love. He was, and remains, fascinating.
Dom James Fox, entrepreneurial abbot of Gethsemani from 1948 to 67 once wrote in exasperation about his confrère Thomas Merton: ‘His mind is so electrical!’ Merton wound Fox up with his ideas, intuitions, and insistence. Yet Fox knew him to be genuine. He respected him, enjoyed his company (when they were not in the middle of some epic quarrel), and went to Merton for confession for most of his abbacy.
It would be daft to compare Thomas Merton to Bernard of Clairvaux, yet there is temperamental similarity. While Bernard never knew about electricity, his was a quicksilver nature containing and having to equilibrate massive tensions.
Bernard’s teaching on conversion is born of a Biblical culture second to none and of well-pondered notions of theology. It is also, and increasingly so with the passage of time, born of personal struggle as he learns not to take it for granted that his course is always the right course, taught by experience, hurts, and provocations to consider his self-righteousness and marvel before God’s merciful justice.
Bernard is a good, wise companion for anyone setting out on a Lenten exodus from selfishness and pride, wishing to pursue authenticity with eyes set on the all-illumining love of God.
* Bishop Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim, Norway, was asked to preach the 2026 Spiritual Exercises for Pope Leo XIV, Cardinals residing in Rome, and the heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, which runs from Sunday, February 22, to Friday, February 27. Here is the link to his website.
