Prayer in Christian History, Pt. 2

A month ago I wrote about some critical lessons I learned from a seminary class, Prayer in Christian History - lessons that continue to come back to me, teaching new, deeper truths as time goes by. A part of the class was assembling a portfolio of class reports, readings, and reading interactions about prayer.  Many of the articles or book chapters read and discussed in the class were from the early Church Fathers. As I was reminiscing a bit while reading back over my reading interactions, I found a book chapter by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, titled On the Love of God, in which he delineated the stages, or degrees, of love for God. For Bernard (1090-1153) we are drawn to God because of the love we have for God. Bernard argues that humans were created by God to love. He wrote, "True love is...self-sufficient, self contented; its object is itself its recompense" (p. 56). Since we were created from God's overflowing love, we also must love to find fulfillment. The highest form of human love for Bernard is love for God.

Barnard's degrees of love are:

1st Degree - Love for Self

2nd Degree - Love of God for what God gives

3rd Degree - Love of God for who God is

4th Degree - Love of God for God's sake

Not everyone traverses all four degrees. In fact, many people do not grow beyond the first degree or stage - love for self. In self-love every action is done because of what it does for self. The second degree is similar, yet it is not solely focused on self, but also on God. It is a selfish love for God - God gives good gifts, therefore I will love God because God such love is rewarding to me. It is in this stage that many people bargain with God; they might pray "God, I will love you/serve you/pray/go to church if you will only _____." Most people come to know and follow God because of a desire to go to heaven or stay out of hell. This is a noble desire, but according to Barnard, it is a selfish one. In modern terms, such religion is only insurance for the afterlife. However, such simple immature faith is essential before growing in maturity to the degrees that follow.

The process of turning from self toward God, even if it is seeking to know God because of what God might do for self, brings humans into contact with God and with God's grace - and that is never a bad thing! As mentioned in the previous post, one cannot pray and remain unchanged. When we interact with God in prayer, contact with God begins to change us from the inside out. As a result of a growing relationship with God, we begin to grow deeper in our faith, becoming less self-focused and more God focused. Such a transition compels us to spend more time with God in prayer and in worship. 

Bernard's third degree of love is even more focused on God than on self. As we grow in our knowledge and relationship with God, as we begin to change into God's likeness, when we begin to adopt the mind of Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we begin to love God simply because God is God. According to Barnard (and those who have elaborated on his writings), most people do not grow beyond the 3rd degree, but remain here for the rest of their lives. This is a good place to be. Christians who remain at this stage would be deemed "mature" by most.

It is rare that people rise to the 4th degree - to love God for God's sake. Herein, there is no selfishness. This is a pure state of love. Bernard wrote, 

"Happy is he, and holy too, to whom it has been given, here in this moral life rarely or even once, for one brief moment only, to taste this kind of love! It is no merely human joy to lose oneself like this, so to be emptied of oneself as though he almost ceased to be at all; it is the bliss of heaven" (p. 64).

This stage demonstrates the ultimate in humility. It is completely God-focused. Here one desires nothing more than to spend time with God in prayer and service. Here all of life is viewed as holy and all activity is worship. Yet for Bernard, to know God so intimately is also tragic. The tragedy is to know and experience God on such a deep level, only to return to the cares and struggles of his life. But even so, for Bernard, such a deep knowledge of God makes all things new - even the mundane. 

It is interesting to me that so many books, articles, and papers have been written on the subject of spiritual maturity. A brief scan of the Christian section of the local bookstore shows a plethora of Christian Growth books, each one more complex than the next. None are as simple as that of Bernard. Most resources on spiritual growth obfuscate Barnard's simple, clear, yet profound example of how God's love compels believers through prayer and relationship.