Cloud of Witnesses
Father Rob’s message on Sunday encouraged us to ponder our cloud of witnesses, those who were instrumental influences and mentors on our spiritual journey.
My spiritual autobiography chronicles a few of those pivotal people – and moments – which God has used to direct my path.
Spiritual deepening for me has come not only through the personal guidance/modeling/mentoring but also through the cloud of witnesses in our Church history – Old and New Covenant characters, flawed and faithful (like David and Peter, Rahab and Mary Magdalene), and throughout the two millennia of our Christian history, those saints and martyrs whose lives, though very human, still modeled the essence of Jesus’ love, compassion, and forgiveness.
On August 20 we remembered Bernard de Clairvaux, noted as a “fiery defender of the Church in the twelfth century, famed for the ardor with which he preached the love of God”. (Lesser Feasts and Fasts) He used his many gifts for the common good.
When traveling in Burgundy, France, near Vézeley, I walked the footsteps of Bernard, visited a small church in his honor, and surveyed the vast field where he prayed over the soldiers headed for the Second Crusade to liberate Jerusalem, a Crusade which ended in disaster.
I wonder if Jesus really wanted those Christian soldiers to march into war. Jesus had a different view of the kingdom of God, not one of power and domination, but one of a community truly living the love of God.
In one of Bernard’s prayers, he acknowledges that God is his strength and support, his refuge and his liberator, everything that one could desire and love with all one’s heart. He knows that he is unworthy, but asks God to allow him to do what he can even though it may not be all that it should be. Bernard was ever faithful and flawed, like all of us.
I suppose I can add Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, to my cloud of witnesses, yet another faithful follower of Jesus who prepared the way. Echoes of Bernard remain today when we sing the hymn “O sacred head sore wounded” during Holy Week (1982 Hymnal, p. 168).
May we give thanks for all who have nurtured our walk with Jesus.
God’s peace, Judy Q+
